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Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian ("Goldstein Demchak") is one of the few private law firms in the country dedicated solely to plaintiffs' civil rights and public interest litigation. Founded in 1972 by now-retired partner Guy T. Saperstein, Goldstein Demchak specializes in complex and class action litigation, including employment discrimination, wage and hour, disability access, environmental, consumer, and other public interest litigation.
Goldstein Demchak has long been recognized as one of the top plaintiffs' firms in the country. As early as 1992, the National Law Journal ("A National Who's Who of the Top Lawyers in Employment Litigation") stated that Goldstein Demchak was, "In a league of their own on the plaintiffs' side, handling the largest class actions nationwide." More recently, The Recorder, San Francisco's daily legal newspaper, listed all of the firm's partners as among the "top attorneys" in employment law in the San Francisco Bay Area. Goldstein Demchak partners have been named "Northern California Super Lawyers" every year since 2004.
Goldstein Demchak's discrimination practice includes both race and gender employment discrimination, public accommodation and consumer discrimination cases. Among our most significant employment discrimination cases are State Farm Insurance, Publix Grocery Stores, Shoney's, Southern California Edison, Home Depot and most recently, Walgreens. In addition to these cases, the firm has successfully resolved employment discrimination complaints against a dozen companies prior to litigation.
Goldstein Demchak has developed growing practices in the areas of wage and hour and disability access, and has become one of the leading plaintiffs' firms in the country on these subjects. Goldstein Demchak recently tried the $100 million Starbucks tip pooling case on behalf of Barristas in California. Among the firm's most significant cases on behalf of workers who were misclassified as "exempt" and were improperly denied overtime and other compensation are those against Countrywide and E-Loan.
In the area of disability access, Goldstein Demchak has been instrumental in negotiating landmark agreements on behalf of persons with vision impairments resulting in the provision of alternative formats (including Braille, large print and audio) for printed materials and the installation of "talking ATMs" at tens of thousands of bank locations across the country. Most recently, the firm has challenged restrictions upon visually impaired persons posed by flat screen "point of sale" machines increasingly used by retailers, and has negotiated the installation of accessible pedestrian signals in San Francisco. The firm's other significant disability access cases, including against Macy's and the Sutter Health chain of hospitals and clinics, were brought on behalf of persons with mobility, visual, hearing and speech impairments.
Goldstein Demchak also litigated the largest public accommodations class action case to date, Ridgeway v. Denny's, which was brought on behalf of African American customers of Denny's Restaurants in California.
The firm also has a successful environmental litigation practice, having successfully resolved water pollution cases against Unocal, Tosco, Exxon Oil Companies, and Dow Chemical Co., and Meridian Gold Company.
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