Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee (“DHKL”), formerly Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, has been in the forefront of the struggle for civil rights and workers’ rights since 1972, evolving into one of the nation’s leading plaintiffs’ class action law firms devoted to the protection of the interests of workers, people with disabilities, consumers, and others who are subjected to discrimination and abuse.
The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for workers who have been denied their earned wages, fair pay, and other job benefits. DHKL partners developed the firm’s wage and hour practice in the late 1990’s. Named Partner Laura L. Ho leads this practice area. Together with Linda M. Dardarian, Of Counsel David Borgen, and other members of the firm, they have recovered unpaid wages for workers in California and the United States from such industry giants as IBM ($65 million settlement for technical workers), Oracle ($35 million settlement for technical employees), Countrywide ($30 million settlement for loan officers), Siebel ($27.5 million settlement for software engineers), Automotive Club of Southern California ($19.5 million settlement for salespeople), and Sysco ($18 million settlement for delivery drivers).
Ms. Dardarian pioneered the firm’s disability rights practice, which she started in 1994. Together with Named Partner Andrew P. Lee, the firm has represented hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities all over the country, expanding their rights to fully and equally participate in mainstream social, economic, and civic life. Some of the firm’s groundbreaking achievements include Willits v. City of Los Angeles, requiring the City of Los Angeles to spend more than $2 billion to make its pedestrian right of way accessible to residents and visitors with mobility disabilities, and Nevarez v. Forty Niners Football Co., requiring upgrades to Levi’s Stadium and its surrounding sidewalks and creating a $24 million damages fund for visitors with mobility disabilities who had been denied full and equal enjoyment of the Stadium during sporting events and concerts. DHKL’s award-winning efforts on behalf of the firm’s clients have also resulted in the installation of talking ATMs for persons with visual impairments nationwide; accessible patient rooms, exam tables and diagnostic equipment at a major California hospital chain for people with mobility disabilities; accessible curb ramps in major cities along the West and East Coasts; talking pedestrian signals throughout San Francisco; and talking pill bottles for blind patients at major hospital and pharmacy chains across the country.
Joined by Partner Ginger L. Grimes, Ms. Ho leads DHKL’s award wining voting rights practice, which has garnered significant changes to local election systems throughout California. Their work was highlighted in California’s Top Boutique Law Firms by the Daily Journal.
The firm also maintains an active consumer law practice, protecting consumer rights in myriad facets of everyday life – including challenging unlawful automatic renewal subscriptions ($16 million settlement with Apple), excessive airline fees ($9.2 million settlement with American Airlines), privacy violations (order approving a $10 million settlement with Twilio), and illegal housing costs. Recently, DHKL completed a successful multi-week bench trial in U.S. District Court in Munguia-Brown v. Equity Residential, resulting in a judgment invalidating Equity’s percentage-based late fee for California tenants’ late payment of rent and ordering Equity to refund tens of millions of dollars in unlawfully collected late fees. In Terry v. Wasatch Advantage Group, DHKL led the efforts in securing a $16.5 million settlement on behalf of a class of California Section 8 tenants and on behalf of the U.S. Government for a False Claims Act claim for alleged illegal side payments. The settlement also included fulsome injunctive relief for the California class.
DHKL also has a long history of winning landmark employment discrimination cases, which are now led by Named Partner James Kan along with Partner Byron R. Goldstein. Past firm highlights include Kraszewski v. State Farm, (a $250 million settlement that also increased the number of female State Farm agents in California from the single agent at the time the suit was filed to over 50% of the agent workforce); Butler v. Home Depot ($87 million class settlement that included innovative programs designed to increase the hiring and promotion of women in what was then a traditionally male dominated company); Ridgeway v. Denny’s (one of the largest public accommodations class action settlements that required Denny’s to pay $34.8 million to patrons who had been denied service because they were Black); McClain v. Lufkin Industries (obtaining $5.5 million in backpay and interest with extensive injunctive relief after a trial in the district court and multiple appeals to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals); Shores v. Publix Super Markets (an $81.5 million class action on behalf of female employees of Florida’s then-largest private employer who were being denied promotions into management positions); and a case Haynes v. Shoney’s, Inc. (begun by Of Counsel Barry Goldstein against the Shoney’s Restaurant chain that culminated in a $137 million settlement and extensive injunctive relief for African American employees); and Vasich v. City of Chicago (class settlement on behalf of city of Chicago female firefighters and EMTs that resulted in the City’s adoption of a less discriminatory physical abilities test to screen applicants for firefighter/EMT positions along with $2 million in back pay). Recently, DHKL, with co-counsel, announced a $43.25 million class settlement in Rasmussen v. The Walt Disney Company, which is an ongoing certified class action alleging pay discrimination.
In representing our clients and fighting for justice and fairness, DHKL continues our decades-old commitment to enforcing state and federal laws designed to protect individuals from abuses in the work place and beyond through class action and complex litigation. See details about our current cases.
More information about DHKl’s history can be found in the following materials:
- California’s Top Boutique Law Firms by the Daily Journal
- National Lawyers Guild Honors Partners’ Three Decades of Leadership, San Francisco Daily Journal, April 2, 2008
- The Denny’s Story: How a Company in Crisis Resurrected Its Good Name, Adamson, J. (Wiley & Sons: 2000)
- The Black O: Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire, Watkins, Steve (1997)