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History

Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee (DHKL) 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 1990s.  The firm has 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 and $15.5 million settlement for sales 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), Sysco ($18 million settlement for delivery drivers), and Reach ($15 million settlement for medical flight crew members).

DHKL started its disability rights practice in 1994.  DHKL 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; accessible beds at global and national hotel chains; talking pedestrian signals throughout San Francisco; and talking pill bottles for blind patients at major hospital and pharmacy chains across the country.

DHKL also has an award-winning voting rights practice, which has garnered significant changes to local election systems throughout California.  The 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. After completing 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, DHKL recently secured a $43 million settlement with Equity to provide refunds and credits to tenants who were charged excessive late fees and other monetary relief.  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 won the California Lawyers of the Year (“CLAY”) awarded from the Daily Journal for its work on this case. Read the Daily Journal Article.

DHKL also has a long history of winning landmark discrimination cases.  In 2025, DHKL, with co-counsel, announced a $43.25 million class settlement in Rasmussen v. The Walt Disney Company, alleging that Disney pays female employees in California less than comparable men.  In Vasich v. City of Chicago, DHKL, with co-counsel, reached a 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. Past firm highlights include groundbreaking gender discrimination class actions such as Kraszewski v. State Farm, a landmark $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, a $87 million class settlement that included innovative programs to increase the hiring and promotion of women in what was then a traditionally male dominated company; and Shores v. Publix Super Markets, a $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. The firm also has a long history of combating race discrimination in the workplace and public spaces, including Haynes v. Shoney’s, Inc., a $137 million settlement and extensive injunctive relief for Black restaurant employees who alleged that Shoney refused to hire Black applicants or only assigned them jobs away from customers (this case inspired The Black O: Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire by Steven Watkins); Ridgeway v. Denny’s, one of the largest public accommodations class action settlements on behalf of patrons who had been denied service because they were Black that required Denny’s to pay $34.8 million; and McClain v. Lufkin Industries, obtaining $5.5 million in backpay and interest with extensive injunctive relief for Black hourly and salaried employees after a trial in the district court and multiple appeals to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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 workplace 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: