Whittier Employment Lawyers

Alex is a Senior Associate Attorney at Blackstone Law. Alex is an active member of the legal community as it relates to employees’ rights. Alex is a member of the California Employment Lawyers’ Association (CELA), and is on the committee for the Mentor Committee, the Women’s Committee, the Legislative Committee, the Wage and Hour Committee, and the New Member Committee, as well as a recent admit to the 2024 – 2025 CELA Leadership Conservatory. Alex has significant experience providing the best counsel for his clients, whether through trial, or through multimillion dollar settlements, or through whatever need the client may describe....

Ms. Schimmel’s practice is dedicated to employment litigation matters on behalf of California employees. More than half of Ms. Schimmel’s experience has been focused on representing employees in wage and hour class and representative actions for labor code violations (including, but not limited to, claims unpaid overtime, minimum wages, expense reimbursement, meal and rest period), as well as consumer and privacy right matters. Ms. Schimmel’s experience also includes representing employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment and retaliation matters against employers who violate California law. She has successfully prosecuted and resolved hundreds of cases. Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Schimmel...

Betty is an associate attorney at Blackstone Law. She graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and a minor in Armenian Studies. While in undergrad, Betty, along with fellow classmates, started the Armenian Pre-Law Students Association, to connect Armenian students aspiring to become attorneys to successful alumni within their community. A proud double Bruin, Betty later attended UCLA School of Law, where she obtained her Juris Doctorate. As a law student, Betty’s professor recognized her articulate writing abilities and selected her as a Legal Research and Writing Advisor for first...

Leo Livshits is an accomplished employment attorney with extensive trial and litigation experience. Mr. Livshits handles a wide variety of employment matters involving workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and other civil rights violations. Aside from securing numerous seven-figure settlements in single-plaintiff cases, Mr. Livshits has co-chaired jury trials and arbitrations that resulted in verdicts or judgments of $155.4 million, $2.7 million, $1.7 million, and $1 million. Additionally, Mr. Livshits has successfully litigated appeals in state and federal court. This includes a published decision in Hernandez v. Meridian Management Services, LLC (2023) 87 Cal.App.5th 1214, where the California Court of Appeal found that...

Lara is an associate attorney at Blackstone Law. She graduated from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with a concentration in Criminal Justice and a minor in Communications. Lara then earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles where she specialized in Critical Race Studies. While in law school, Lara worked as a law clerk at the District of Columbia Public Defender Service and as a judicial clerk in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Hearings Unit in Los Angeles. She was involved with the El Centro Teen Court Clinic, Disability Law Journal,...

Danielle L. GruppChang is a passionate advocate for workers’ rights and a seasoned attorney specializing in wage and hour class actions. Raised in a family where both parents worked in the restaurant industry, Ms. GruppChang developed an early respect for the hard work and resilience of the Californian workers. This background exposed Ms. GruppChang the struggles of working-class individuals sparked her dedication to fighting for justice on behalf of workers. Ms. GruppChang’s professional journey began when she started working at a local coffee shop and continued throughout college where she worked tables, often serving her classmates. These experiences further resolved her...

Alex Favela serves as the firm’s Pre-Litigation Attorney and specializes in disputes involving wage and hour violations, misclassification, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, failure to accommodate violations, and class actions. Alex received his J.D. from Stanford Law School. As a child of immigrant working-class parents, upholding the dignity of workers is central to Alex’s identity as a lawyer. A person’s job is their livelihood, and Alex strongly believes that workers deserve to be treated with respect and fairness. Before joining the firm, Alex represented workers at a respected employment plaintiff-side law firm. He has also clerked for the U.S. Office of Special...

Joana Fang is a Senior Associate Attorney with expertise in class action, employment litigation, personal injury, insurance litigation, and consumer protection laws. Ms. Fang has extensive experience in case management and all aspects of litigation, from drafting complaints to engaging in the discovery process, settlement negotiations, and preparing for trial. During her legal career, she has recovered millions of dollars for her clients. Ms. Fang is also a prolific writer who has written and published numerous articles on Law360, The Recorder, and Daily Journal. She has also led seminars on using depositions at trial and on litigating sexual abuse cases against schools...

Imad Elias is a founding partner of The Law Offices of Mann & Elias, a Los Angeles based law firm handling employment law and personal injury cases. Contact Mann & Elias at (323) 857-9500 for a free consultation.

Barbara is dedicated to fighting for the rights of California’s employees in both individual and class/PAGA cases. As a working mom, Barbara has a particular passion for vindicating the rights of women who have suffered discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Barbara was also co-counsel on Young v. Department of Public Social Services, et al, a retaliation/whistleblower case, and obtained the 7th highest employment law verdict in California in 2022. Presently, Barbara and her team focus on litigating class and PAGA actions on behalf of thousands of California employees who have been denied meal and rest periods, denied fair compensation, and...

Mr. Dietz has aggressively litigated civil cases in California for over a decade. He has represented government agencies in high-profile employment law, general liability and civil rights matters, including representing some of the largest school districts in California. His prior experience includes working at one of the largest firms in the U.S., as well as a highly respected litigation boutique, where he represented the full gamut of businesses from Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop shops in employment and business litigation matters in state and federal court and administrative bodies. Over the course of his career, Mr. Dietz...

Ashley Cruz is an employment attorney who has spent her entire career pursuing justice and advocating for people across the United States. Her passion for upholding, asserting, and defending the rights of others has guided her throughout her career. Ashley has represented children in abuse and neglect proceedings, individuals and families in deportation proceedings, and workers actively seeking legal recourse. Her self-imposed requirement for nothing less than excellent representation, coupled with her dedication to helping others, has received praise from clients, judges, mediators, and fellow professionals. Ashley litigates in the area of labor and employment law. She has handled harassment, discrimination,...

Ms. Gold is an experienced litigation attorney who specializes in class action labor and employment matters. She spent the first decade of her career at a major law firm working on a wide range of business matters, including defending clients in high-stakes class action litigation. This experience provided Ms. Gold with valuable insight on how to best position cases for settlement and/or trial by allowing her to better understand defendants’ strategies, incentives, and motivations throughout the various phases of litigation. Ms. Gold then transitioned to a well-known boutique plaintiff-side class action law firm, where she was instrumental in obtaining nearly $100,000,000...

Annabel Blanchard is an associate attorney who represents individuals in wage and hour class actions and representative actions under the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Prior to joining Blackstone, PC, Ms. Blanchard worked at a respected plaintiff’s-side employment law firm, where she focused on obtaining court approval of large-scale class and PAGA settlements. Before practicing wage-and-hour employment law, Ms. Blanchard worked at boutique law firms providing estate planning services to families, with a focus on special needs planning and conservatorship. As a part of her estate planning practice, Ms. Blanchard served on the Los Angeles Superior Court “Court Appointed...

Mr. Saba’s practice consists of prosecuting and defending individual, class action and mass action claims. He has considerable experience in a wide range of federal and state civil litigation and trial actions, including consumer litigation, employment litigation, women’s rights, complex business and entertainment disputes, catastrophic injury claims, professional responsibility, copyright/trademark, civil rights, maritime, and municipal, landowner and product liability.

Are you a victim of workplace sexual harassment or discrimination? Don’t wait to enlist the legal support you need to protect your personal rights. Stan Andrei Grombchevsky is a partner at Harris Grombchevsky LLP, which offers comprehensive legal representation for all types of employment issues. Mr. Grombchevsky is committed to offering compassionate and caring counsel for his clients, no matter what the circumstances are. He graduated from Chapman University School of Law in 1999 and soon began his legal career. Mr. Grombchevsky is a member of the California Employment Lawyers Association, allowing him to protect clients dealing with everything form...

Gregory M. Clement's practice focuses on corporate, real estate and other transactional matters, as well as a wide array of employment law issues. Mr. Clement has handled the purchase and sale of numerous companies, including several multimillion dollar acquisitions by publicly traded companies and represents clients in a wide variety of fields including transportation, software, entertainment, insurance, Internet and telecommunications. Mr. Clement began his legal career as a business litigator in Washington, D.C. before joining the business litigation firm of Whitcombe, Makin & Pentis in Long Beach. Before joining BKCG in 2000, he was general counsel of Golden Eagle...

Daniel Kessler is the head of the firm’s litigation department and one of the firm’s founding partners. Mr. Kessler has litigated and tried a wide variety of business cases ranging from employment terminations to real estate development disputes to fraud and conspiracy to water rights. Mr. Kessler has secured multiple million-dollar jury verdicts for his clients, including significant punitive damage awards. Mr. Kessler has successfully defended clients before, during and at trial, including prevailing on several motions to dismiss the opposition’s case in its entirety, saving the expense of further trial. Mr. Kessler is a strong advocate for alternative dispute...

Joshua Waldman is a senior counsel whose practice focuses primarily on business disputes. Mr. Waldman began his legal career as an extern for the Honorable Napoleon Jones, Jr. from the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California. He was an associate for Walsworth, Franklin Bevins and McCall and Collins & Bellenghi, focusing on civil litigation, with an emphasis on business and employment disputes before joining BKCG. Since joining BKCG, Mr. Waldman has secured many positive outcomes for BKCG clients by winning dipositive motions, achieving extremely favorable settlements, and prevailing in multiple trials and arbitrations. Born in Phoenix, Mr....

Michael Oberbeck is a senior counsel focusing on business litigation issues. At BKCG, Mr. Oberbeck has extensively litigated employment disputes, commercial and real property disputes, international manufacturing and distribution litigation, and trademark and franchise issues. Mr. Oberbeck has litigated cases throughout California in both state and federal courts, and he has obtained many client-favorable results at trial, arbitration, and mediation. Mr. Oberbeck also has authored and successfully argued several matters before the California Courts of Appeals for BKCG clients. Born in Evansville, Indiana, Mr. Oberbeck graduated, cum laude, from Purdue University in 1993 with a double major in Psychology...

Ani M. Akopyan received her bachelor’s degree, with honors, from UCLA in 2001 and her law degree from Southwestern Law School in 2004. Since law school, Ani has worked exclusively in the field of labor and employment litigation. Prior to joining the Akopyan Law Firm, Ani was a member of a well-known, reputable defense firm where she represented employers and their insurance companies in all stages of labor and employment litigation including wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and whistle-blower litigation, as well as high stakes wage & hour class action cases. Ani’s 10+ years of experience in defending employers both...

Michael Akopyan received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California in 2001 and his law degree from Southwestern Law School in 2005. Before establishing his own firm in 2009, Michael worked as an associate attorney with Keith Fink & Associates and Solomon, Saltsman & Jamieson, where he represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad spectrum of cases including employment cases, personal injury cases, civil rights cases, business disputes, and administrative proceedings. Michael has successfully represented clients in civil and administrative trials and appeals.

Michael has recovered millions of dollars for his clients. He was named to the CaliforniaRising...

Attorney Hines represents employees with claims against their employers for harassment, discrimination, retaliation and Labor Code violations.

In 1991, after graduating near the top of his class, an insurance company hired Paul Zuckerman to be their lawyer. Paul approached the job with optimism. He believed the company’s advertisement and thought that he was hired to be there, like a good neighbor, for policyholders in need. However, Paul soon discovered that his work was merely padding the pockets of his employer, and not ensuring that injured people were compensated fairly. Thus, Paul, with his law school classmate John Carpenter, established a new kind of law firm: A law firm that only represents injured people against insurance companies. Paul...

Ethan D. Kirschner is an experienced litigator with clients in California, throughout the United States, and overseas. Originally from Wisconsin, Mr. Kirschner was a champion high school and college debater. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School, and received an LL.M. in intellectual property law from the University of California, Berkeley.


Mr. Kirschner has been practicing law since 2005. He is licensed to practice law in California.

Brianna earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California, Irvine, where she graduated with a degree in Political Science. She always knew she wanted to be an attorney, specifically because she had a passion for helping and working with people.

Brianna traveled to Washington D.C. where she attended American University Washington College of Law. She graduated Cum Laude earning her Juris Doctor degree in May of 2019. While at American University, she participated in the Domestic Violence Clinic for two semesters and received a special honor for her work with clients in difficult life circumstances. Additionally, Brianna had numerous...

Tim Owen is a senior attorney on Varner & Brandt's Riverside office Business Litigation Team. Tim has over 25 years of experience as a trial attorney in state and federal courts in California and New York. His practice and expertise covers employment, labor, complex business disputes, complex litigation, products liability, and professional negligence, as well as appellate matters.

I began my career as a legal administrator for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee. That experience required me to evaluate cases and claims from the perspective of a court neutral and examine the strengths and weaknesses of the respective positions of the multiple parties to a bankruptcy proceeding. It also required me to develop an in-depth knowledge of how cases proceed when they are governed almost exclusively by a complex statutory scheme. These experiences, learned early on in my career provided me with the type of analytical skills that would prove highly beneficial as my career progressed. After bankruptcy, I joined...

Daniel L. Warshaw is a civil litigator and trial lawyer focusing on Complex Litigation, Class Actions, Employment law, Business Litigation, Product Liability, Unfair Competition Law and Consumer Protection. Mr. Warshaw is a member of the State Bar of California; U.S. District Court, Central District of California; U.S. District Court, Northern District of California; U.S. District Court, Southern District of California; and U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. He attended the University of Southern California (B.S., 1992); Whittier College School of Law (J.D., 1996). Daniel L. Warshaw has attained Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating (AV) for legal ability and ethical standards. Member: Los Angeles...

A decorated U.S. Navy Veteran, Karo Karapetyan’s career has subsequently been validated by awards for achievement and performance. In his professional experience as an attorney, business owner, financial adviser, and real estate broker, he provides clients with the tried and tested insights required to serve as counsel for real estate litigation and transactions, employment law cases, and personal injury law matters. Mr. Karapetyan received his J.D. from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law where graduated a Summa Cum Laude class Valedictorian, and the recipient of several Witkin Awards for Academic Excellence. He received his undergraduate degree in Professional...

Lori Carver Hershorin is a licensed California, Texas and Indiana attorney with over 30 years of experience. Lori's practice focuses on real estate, escrow title, business, insurance and appeals. Ms. Hershorin has prevailed in 39 appeals out of 42. In 1991, Ms. Hershorin began her legal career at McDermott Will & Emery focusing on fraud, real estate, and employment matters. She subsequently joined Lewis Brisbois and focused on mortgage fraud, real estate and breach of contract litigation. In 1995, Lori joined the in-house legal team of Fidelity National Title Insurance Company as an Assistant Vice-President and Associate...

Greg Stefflre, Esq. Greg Stefflre is currently Chief Executive of Rail Delivery Services, a motor carrier that pioneered the use of cutting edge technology in providing drayage and distribution in southern California from 1981 until the present. Trained and having practiced over forty years as a transportation lawyer, Greg has been involved in many of our industries’ most progressive institutions and activities, including: Co-founder of the California Trucking Association Intermodal Ateering Committee (now, Conference); Co-founder of the American Trucking Association’s Intermodal Conference and Chairman 1990-1991; Member, American Trucking Associations Policy & Finance Committee...