Outten & Golden LLP

Jahan C. Sagafi

JAHAN C. SAGAFI is the partner-in-charge of the firm’s San Francisco office, where he represents workers in employment class actions challenging discrimination, wage and hour abuses, Fair Credit Reporting Act violations, and other types of exploitation. He has won a jury trial for a nationwide class of approximately 1,000 technical support workers, an en banc appeal in the Ninth Circuit, and many settlements to recover backpay for overtime compensation, meal and rest breaks, vacation benefits, discriminatory pay and promotion gaps, and more.

Mr. Sagafi has represented a wide array of workers throughout the country, including HVAC service technicians, corporate instructors, financial advisers and trainees, security officers temp staffing workers, cashiers, call center customer service representatives, counselors, drivers, and many others.

During his career, he has recovered well over $100 million for workers, asserting claims against transportation companies (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Hertz, GlobalTranz), tech companies (e.g., AT&T, IBM, Computer Sciences Corp.), banks (e.g., Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney), retailers (e.g., Walmart, Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, Guess?, Raley’s) healthcare companies (e.g., Permanente, Premera Blue Cross), an accounting firm (PwC), insurance companies (e.g., Travelers, Farmers), restaurants, and more.

In addition to his trial court work, Mr. Sagafi represents plaintiffs in appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit, and other courts, addressing issues such as workers’ rights, arbitration agreements, class certification, standing, unfair and deceptive practices under California’s Unfair Competition Law, and FDA preemption. He has also volunteered to write amicus briefs in the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Sagafi is also active in the community, serving on several boards, including national nonprofit Alliance for Justice's (AFJ) board and the San Francisco American Constitution Society (ACS) Bay Area chapter’s Board of Advisors. In the past, he has served as a Governor of the board of the nonprofit Public Advocates, a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) Judicial Evaluations Committee, a BASF attorney fee disputes arbitrator, Vice Chair of the board of the ACLU of Northern California (and Chair of Legal Committee), chair of the Board of the San Francisco ACS chapter, and as an Executive Committee member of the California Bar Litigation Section. Additionally, Mr. Sagafi has served as an organizer of ABA Labor & Employment Law Section conferences.

Mr. Sagafi has been recognized by numerous legal and non-profit organizations. He has received the Community Justice Award from Centro Legal De La Raza, and has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Top 100 lawyers in all fields in Northern California (2015-19), one of the Daily Journal’s “Top 75 Labor and Employment Lawyers” in California (2015-18), and one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers in the United States (2018).

Prior to joining Outten & Golden, he was a partner at Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, and clerked for the Honorable William W Schwarzer of the Northern District of California. Mr. Sagafi graduated from Harvard College, magna cum laude, and received his J.D. Harvard Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and president of the Board of Student Advisers.

Mr. Sagafi is admitted to practice law only in California. Mr. Sagafi is admitted to the following federal courts: The United States District Courts for the Northern District of California, the Eastern District of California, the Central District of California; and the Southern District of New York; the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Ninth Circuit; and the Eleventh Circuit.

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Jennifer Schwartz

JENNIFER SCHWARTZ is a partner at Outten & Golden LLP and heads the individual practice in the San Francisco office. She represents employees exclusively in a wide range of employment matters, including litigation in state and federal trial courts, before administrative agencies, and in appellate courts. Despite her extensive litigation and arbitration experience, Ms. Schwartz often finds that, with appropriate counseling and negotiation, extensive litigation can be avoided. Ms. Schwartz frequently utilizes mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution in pursuit of the most favorable outcome for her clients.

Ms. Schwartz's employment practice focuses on claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and violation of state and federal wage and hour laws. She represents whistleblowers and individuals who have experienced adverse employment action as a result of opposing illegal or unethical corporate practices.

Ms. Schwartz also handles a variety of professional and executive compensation and benefits matters, including the negotiation of employment, severance, restrictive covenant, and trade secret agreements. Using Outten & Golden's depth and breadth of experience with complicated aspects of executive employment arrangements, she provides advice to founders and other employees and professionals at both "start ups" and existing businesses relating to transactional matters, including changes in control, mergers, team moves, and the formation and sale of businesses.

Before joining Outten & Golden LLP, Ms. Schwartz managed her own firm in the San Francisco area, practicing in the areas of employment law and criminal defense. One of her career highlights was obtaining an acquittal at re-trial after appeal for a client wrongfully convicted of a homicide.

Ms. Schwartz employs a highly client-centric approach, carefully considering all aspects of a client's life and needs in helping develop and implement strategic decisions. She believes that every single client -- without regard to position in life -- deserves a dedicated, compassionate, and tenacious advocate.

Ms. Schwartz is admitted to practice law only in New York and California. Ms. Schwartz is admitted to the following federal courts: The United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the Eastern District of California; and the Central District of California; and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

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Rachel Bien

RACHEL BIEN, is a Partner at Outten & Golden LLP in Los Angeles, California, and a Co-Chair of its Class & Collective Action Practice Group.

Ms. Bien is an experienced litigator who has recovered millions of dollars in unpaid wages on behalf of her clients. She has represented tens of thousands of workers across many different industries in class and collective lawsuits. She was lead counsel in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., one of the first cases to argue that interns should be paid for their work on behalf of a private employer.

Ms. Bien is committed to protecting workers' rights under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state and local wage laws. She has litigated and successfully settled many cases involving workers who were "misclassified" by their employers as "exempt" from overtime protections or labeled as "independent contractors" and denied overtime pay and other benefits. She has won motions against large corporations, and consistently advocates for interpretations of the law that advance the rights of all workers, including those who are most vulnerable to abuse.

Ms. Bien is an active member of the employment law bar. She is a member of the State Bar of California's Labor and Employment Law Section, the National Employment Lawyer's Association (NELA) and its California chapter (CELA), and the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section. She speaks frequently on wage and hour topics.

She graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 2005 and joined Outten & Golden LLP in October 2006 after serving as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Thomas G. Nelson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ms. Bien is admitted to practice law only in California and New York.

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Menaka N. Fernando

MENAKA N. FERNANDO is a partner at Outten & Golden’s San Francisco office and focuses her practice on gender-based issues in the workplace. She is a member of the firm’s Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment and Family Responsibilities & Disabilities Discrimination Practice Groups. Ms. Fernando represents individual employees in negotiation and litigation in a variety of employment matters including sexual harassment, gender and race discrimination, family and pregnancy leave, retaliation, and wrongful termination, among others. Ms. Fernando has extensive experience in litigating employment matters in state and federal court, arbitration, and before administrative agencies Ms. Fernando also focuses on representing employees in negotiating employment and severance, agreements.

Ms. Fernando employs an extremely client-centered approach to her practice and incorporates each client’s unique circumstances and goals to tailor strategies that work best for each individual.

Throughout her career, Ms. Fernando has also been a policy crusader, lobbying and testifying before the California legislature to change the state’s employment laws. She is the current Co-Chair of the California Employment Lawyers’ Association and has worked on bills to strengthen the state’s anti-discrimination laws and harassment laws.

Ms. Fernando serves on the Executive Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association, a statewide organization of over 1,200 California attorneys who devote their practice to representing employees. Ms. Fernando also serves on the boards of Open Door Legal, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that strives to eradicate poverty through universal access to legal aid, and the Stand Up For Workers Political Action Committee, which works to elect Congressional candidates who prioritize workers’ rights.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Fernando worked at several plaintiff-side employment and civil rights law firms in California. Ms. Fernando received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005 and her J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law in 2010.

Ms. Fernando is admitted to practice law only in California. Ms. Fernando is admitted to the following federal courts: The United States District Courts for the Northern District of California, Central District of California; and Eastern District of California. More About This Attorney »

Pawanpreet K. Dhaliwal

PAWANPREET K. DHALIWAL is an associate at Outten & Golden LLP and a member of the firm’s Individual Practice Area and Whistleblower Retaliation Practice Group. She has devoted her career to providing compassionate and zealous representation to diverse employees and professionals.

Prior to joining the firm in 2021, Ms. Dhaliwal worked as an in-house legal counsel for the California Nurses Association / National Nurses United, the nation’s largest nurses’ union. There, her responsibilities included advocating for nurse whistleblowers demanding adequate workplace health and safety protections in the Coronavirus pandemic. Previously, she worked as an associate at a boutique employment civil rights law firm, where she represented employees across an array of industries in wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower, and wage-and-hour cases. Before that, Ms. Dhaliwal was a Staff Attorney at The Sikh Coalition, a national civil rights organization, where she supported Sikh clients in challenging racial and religious discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere. Throughout these roles, Ms. Dhaliwal has counseled diverse individuals through challenging circumstances.

Ms. Dhaliwal received her Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 2009, and her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2015. During law school, Ms. Dhaliwal supported civil rights litigation efforts at the Center for Constitutional Rights and Public Advocates, Inc. as a summer law clerk. Prior to law school, Ms. Dhaliwal worked on education civil rights issues as a Policy Associate at the Campaign (now, Center) for Educational Equity at Columbia University.

Ms. Dhaliwal is admitted to practice law only in California. Ms. Dhaliwal is admitted to the following federal courts: The United States District Court for the Northern District of California. More About This Attorney »

Molly Frandsen

MOLLY FRANDSEN is an associate at Outten & Golden LLP, and a member of the firm’s Class Action Practice Group. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Ms. Frandsen clerked for the Honorable Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald of the Hawaii State Supreme Court.

Ms. Frandsen received her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2011, and her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2017, where she served as Co-Editor in Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. During law school, Ms. Frandsen served as a director of the Workers’ Rights Clinic, served as a law clerk at Outten & Golden, and provided direct service to workers as a law clerk at Legal Aid at Work. Ms. Frandsen also interned for the Complex and Affirmative Litigation team at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, and conducted research on Civil Procedure issues for Professor Andrew Bradt. Before law school, Ms. Frandsen worked on employment class action and labor cases as a paralegal at Altshuler Berzon, LLP.

Ms. Frandsen is admitted to practice law only in California. More About This Attorney »

Moira Heiges-Goepfert

MOIRA HEIGES-GOEPFERT is an associate at Outten & Golden LLP, and a member of the firm’s Class Action Practice Group, representing employees in discrimination and wage and hour litigation. Prior to joining the firm in 2017, Moira clerked for the Honorable Jon O. Newman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Honorable Valerie Caproni, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She also worked as a litigation associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York, and taught English literature and writing at a public university in Beijing, China. Moira earned her B.A. with honors from Yale University in 2004, and her J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2010, where she served as Managing Editor for the Minnesota Law Review.

Ms. Heiges-Goepfert is admitted to practice law only in California and New York. Ms. Heiges-Goepfert is admitted to the following federal courts: The United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York. More About This Attorney »

Adam L. Koshkin

ADAM L. KOSHKIN is an associate at Outten & Golden LLP, and a member of the firm’s Class Action Practice Group. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Mr. Koshkin clerked for the Honorable Judith E. Levy of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Mr. Koshkin received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 2011, and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2017, where he was the Senior Articles Editor of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. During law school Mr. Koshkin was the director of the Wage Justice Clinic and a law clerk for Legal Aid at Work, where he provided direct legal services to workers with claims in administrative forums. Before law school, Mr. Koshkin served as a research assistant to Ranking Member Elijah Cummings of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Koshkin is admitted to practice law only in California. More About This Attorney »