David Borgen

David continues on at DHKL as Of Counsel bringing his 45 years of experience protecting workers’ rights in complex employment litigation. He is available to consult on new potential cases and to assist on working through thorny issues in ongoing cases.  David has most recently brought truckers’ minimum wage class action claims to trial and ultimately to settlement in Ayala v. U.S. Xpress (C.D. Cal. 2023) and Abarca v. Werner Enterprises, Inc. (D. Neb. 2025).  He can assist in class action mediations and helping with both settlement and litigation strategy.

David was one of the early pioneers in using class and collective actions to enforce minimum wage and overtime rights on behalf of day laborers, rental car assistant managers, software engineers, journalist bloggers, mortgage sales agents, and insurance agents.  Starting in the mid-90’s, David led the firm’s wage and hour practice and helped thousands of workers and many plaintiff cocounsel firms achieve outstanding recoveries in wage theft cases.   Before that, David worked on many of the firm’s historic Title VII civil rights class actions against major employers like State Farm, Albertsons, and Home Depot.  More recently, David took on the Chicago Fire Department on behalf of several classes and groups of women seeking jobs and promotions.

David started his career as a union staff attorney with the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, after graduating from UC Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco) in 1981.  He joined the firm in 1990.  Throughout his career, he has contributed to the employment law community by editing two ABA treatises, speaking at legal education conferences, and serving on the governing boards of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section and the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers (Past President).  When he is not lawyering, he can be found long distance hiking, travelling, and playing with his 6 young grandchildren in Omaha and New York City.

Linda M. Dardarian

Recognized as a national leader in civil rights impact litigation, senior partner Linda M. Dardarian has an extensive track record of winning class action disability access, employment discrimination, environmental enforcement and wage and hour class actions in various courts around the United States, successfully litigating them through trial, appeal, and settlement.

Linda leads the firm’s disability rights practice, and also leads other public interest class and collective actions. She was one of the lead negotiators of the largest-ever disability access class action settlement, Willits v. City of Los Angeles, valued in excess of $1.4 billion. Linda was also lead trial counsel in Munguia-Brown v. Equity Residential, establishing that it is unlawful for landlords in California to charge their tenants a percentage-based late fee for late payment of rent and requiring Equity to refund tens of millions of dollars in late fees to its California tenants. She has also been lead counsel in employment class actions that have collectively resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to wronged employees, and has litigated landmark cases representing Bay Area communities seeking to clean up toxic chemicals in San Francisco Bay and one of Contra Costa County’s drinking water sources. Linda is also one of the creators of a dispute resolution method known as Structured Negotiation, through which she has negotiated critical changes in technology on behalf of people with disabilities, including the development of talking ATMs and talking pill bottles for people who are blind or visually impaired.

Linda is a frequent lecturer and panelist on disability rights, litigation practice and procedure, and attorney’s fees recovery. Ms. Dardarian has received numerous accolades for extraordinary achievement in civil rights advancement, including being selected as one of the Top 50 Lawyers in America, named a 2021 Elite Trial Lawyers Finalist for Disability Rights, and a Finalist for the Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the year in 2017. Every year since 2005, Linda has also been named a northern California “Super Lawyer” practicing employment law, and was named one of the Top 50 Women Super Lawyers in 2009. She is also regularly listed as one of “The Best Lawyers in America” and is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell.

Linda joined Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee, then known as Saperstein, Seligman, Mayeda & Larkin, as an associate in 1991 and has been a partner since 1998.

Laura L. Ho

Laura L. Ho is an award-winning litigator who has over 30 years of experience recovering hundreds of millions of dollars for workers throughout California and the country in industries like high tech, retail, home improvement, healthcare, banking, construction, the “gig” economy, and many others.  She has represented tens of millions of consumers in successful class actions returning money and ensuring big companies deal with their customers more fairly.   Laura has also been instrumental in enforcing the California Voting Rights Act in cities including Anaheim, Palmdale, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale.

Laura won California Lawyer magazine’s California Lawyer of the Year Award (CLAY) in 2025 and 2009, was named Best Lawyer’s 2014 and 2019 Lawyer of the Year for Oakland in Litigation—Labor and Employment, and is regularly recognized as a Best Lawyer, one of LawDragon’s 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers, and a Northern California Super Lawyer.  The ACLU of Southern California and the Asian Law Alliance have awarded her for her work advancing voting rights.

Laura has been a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Law since 2018 and joined its board in 2022.  From 2019-22, she was the Employee Co-Chair of the ABA’s Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee.  She regularly writes and speaks on wage and hour and complex litigation topics.

James Kan

James Kan represents workers demanding fair compensation and working conditions free from discrimination, protects consumers against unfair business practices and violations of their privacy, and advocates for individual executives who need severance negotiations.

James has:

• Litigated a sex discrimination class action on behalf of women who worked for Disney in California alleging unequal pay for the same or equal work as male colleagues.  Won a motion for class certification for California Equal Pay Act claims.  Resulted in a $43.25 million settlement that is nearing the end of the court approval process.
• Won a jury verdict in a Fair Labor Standards Act case on behalf of 55 Chili’s restaurant servers for unpaid wages.  Also won the appeal to uphold the verdict before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal.
• Co-lead trial counsel in a California Private Attorney General Action representative action on behalf of thousands of Oracle America, Inc. sales employees paid commission wages.  Litigated through two phases of trial to successful bench rulings.  Won motions for summary adjudication on the calculation of PAGA civil penalties ahead of a third penalties phase of trial.  Resulted in a $15.5 million settlement.
• Co-lead litigation and trial counsel in a nationwide and California class action on behalf of nearly 100,000 Werner Trucking, Inc. truck drivers for minimum wage violations and other wage and hour claims.  Won motions for summary adjudication, defeated several motions for decertification and reconsideration, and defeated Daubert motions challenging Plaintiffs’ experts.  Resulted in a $18 million settlement on the eve of trial that is currently undergoing the court approval process.
• Litigated a class action on behalf of California consumers under California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, resulting in a certified statewide class and later in a $10 million settlement.
• Negotiated severance or separation agreements against Fortune 500 and other major companies on behalf of individual executives and high-net worth employees, including a recent 7-figure severance award involving a major software company ranked on the Fortune Future 50 list.

James has been selected by SuperLawyers as a Super Lawyer or Rising Star since 2014 and recognized as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Civil Rights and Plaintiff Employment Lawyers since 2018.  James is an active member of the America Bar Association’s Equal Employment Opportunity committee where he formerly served as the committee Co-Chair on behalf of all plaintiffs’ side practitioners.  James regularly lectures or serves as a panelist on equal employment opportunity law, wage and hour law, and complex litigation topics.  He is also a current board member of the Asian Law Caucus based in San Francisco, California.

James joined DHKL in 2005 as the inaugural Social Justice Fellow and became a Partner in 2014.  He received his law degree from the Columbia University, School of Law, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Prior to law school, James taught middle school in Paterson, New Jersey as part of Teach for America.

Andrew P. Lee

Andrew P. Lee is a litigator and trial attorney with extensive experience representing plaintiffs in class and complex litigation.  His practice focuses on disability discrimination, wage-and-hour, and consumer class actions.

Andrew’s disability practice focuses on ensuring access to public facilities and infrastructure.  He recently served as co-lead trial counsel in the matter of Griffin v. City of Los Angeles, Case No. 24-cv-06312 (C.D. Cal.), a certified class action seeking systemic injunctive relief to make the City of Los Angeles’s vast park system accessible to persons with mobility disabilities.  He was class counsel in Willits v. City of Los Angeles, Case No. 10-cv-05782 (C.D. Cal.), which resulted in the largest-ever disability access class action settlement valued in excess of $1.4 billion.  Other disability access class actions litigated by Andrew include Nevarez v. Forty Niners Football Co., No. 16-cv-07013 (N.D. Cal.) (class action settlement requiring stadium-wide barrier removal and providing for $24 million damages fund—the largest-ever monetary settlement in a disability access class action against a place of public accommodation), Ochoa v. the City of Long Beach, Case No. 14-cv-04307 (C.D. Cal.) (class action settlement requiring curb ramp and sidewalk barrier removal valued at approximately $200 million), and Lashbrook v. City of San Jose, Case No. 20-cv-01236 (N.D. Cal) (class action settlement requiring curb ramp barrier removal valued at approximately $130 million).

Andrew also represents workers, consumers, and tenants, having secured tens of millions of dollars in wages and restitution during his career.  He served as trial counsel in the matter of Munguia-Brown v. Equity Residential, Case No. 16-cv-01225 (N.D. Cal.), which resulted in a finding of liability and an award of restitution of nearly $25 million on behalf of approximately 190,000 California tenants who were charged unlawful late fees.  More recently, he served as class counsel in the matter of Abarca v. Werner Enterprises, Case No. 14-cv-319 (D. Neb.)—a consolidated wage and hour class action on behalf of thousands of truck drivers—in which he obtained partial summary judgment on behalf of the plaintiffs and fended off the employer’s attempt to decertify the case as a class action.  Andrew was also plaintiff’s counsel in Adolph v. Uber Technologies, a precedent-setting case in which the California Supreme Court held that an employee may pursue representative claims on behalf of other aggrieved employees under the California Private Attorneys General Act regardless of whether the employee’s individual claims are subject to individual arbitration.

Andrew regularly speaks on employment, disability, and complex litigation topics.  He has served as a panelist at conferences organized by the American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, California Lawyers Association, and the National Employment Lawyers Association, among others.  He is an author of the Wage and Hour Laws, A State-by-State Survey (Bloomberg BNA), serving as editor of the Special Litigation section of the California chapter since 2019.  Andrew was named a Northern California Rising Star from 2015 to 2017, and has been named a Northern California SuperLawyer each year since 2020.  He has also been recognized as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers each year since 2019.

Andrew is a 2006 graduate of University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where he served as an editor of the UC Law Journal.

Ginger L. Grimes

Ginger L. Grimes represents workers seeking fair compensation and working conditions, voters asserting their right to vote free from racial discrimination, and people with disabilities seeking equal access to public spaces. At DHKL, Ginger has:

• Litigated through two liability phases of trial a California Private Attorney General Action representative action on behalf of thousands of Oracle America, Inc. sales employees paid commission wages. Won motions for summary adjudication on the calculation of PAGA civil penalties ahead of a third penalties phase of trial. Resulted in a $15.5 million settlement.
• Litigated a class and certified Fair Labor Standards Act collective action for state and federal wage and hour claims of misclassified independent contractor sports journalists and editors for Vox Media, Inc., resulting in a $4 million settlement.
• Litigated a certified class action of California consumers under California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, resulting in a $10 million settlement.
• Won after two phases of trial a decision concluding that the City of Santa Clara violated the California Voting Rights Act by maintaining an at-large election system that diluted the votes of Asian American voters and directing the City to transition to district-based elections. Affirmed on appeal.
• Litigated a class and collection action involving sales representatives for Behr Process Corporation, resulting in a $5 million settlement.

In 2022, the Asian Law Alliance recognized DHKL’s voting rights team, including Ginger, as a Legal Impact Honoree for the firm’s work representing Asian American voters at trial and on appeal against the City of Santa Clara. She has been selected by SuperLawyers as a Rising Star in 2022 through 2025 and in 2025 was selected as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers. Ginger regularly volunteers as a supervising attorney for Legal Aid at Work’s Workers’ Rights Clinic.

Ginger joined DHKL in 2016 as a Social Justice Fellow and became a Partner in 2024. Prior to joining DHKL, she clerked for the Honorable Daniel R. Foley in the Intermediate Court of Appeals for the State of Hawai’i. She received her law degree from the University of California, Irvine School of Law and bachelor’s degree from Occidental College.

Katharine Fisher Trabucco

Katharine Fisher Trabucco joined the firm in 2016 as a Social Justice Fellow and became a partner in 2025.

She has spent her career advocating for employees, tenants, consumers, and people with disabilities through impact litigation and structured negotiations.  After graduating from UC Berkeley School of Law in 2015, Katharine was a legal fellow in the Gender Equity & LGBT Rights and Work & Family Programs at Legal Aid at Work.  Katharine has been selected by SuperLawyers as a Rising Star since 2018.

Stephanie Tilden

Stephanie E. Tilden represents workers seeking fair pay under wage and hour and equal pay laws, consumers facing unfair business practices, and people with disabilities facing barriers to equal access.  At DHKL, Stephanie

• Prepared for three class action bench and jury trials, including drafting trial briefs and preparing named plaintiffs and class member witnesses for trial testimony.
• Won a motion in limine to exclude late-disclosed evidence and witnesses.
• Successfully opposed motions in limine seeking to limit Plaintiffs’ evidence and motions to exclude Plaintiffs’ experts.
• Helped defend on appeal a classwide settlement guaranteeing an accessible pedestrian right of way.
• Assisted with drafting two winning summary judgment motions, which secured crucial liability and damages rulings in case brought on behalf of Section 8 tenants who were charged unlawful fees.
• Helped secure class certification and successfully oppose a motion for summary judgment in a consumer case alleging false and deceptive product labeling.

Stephanie was part of a team that won California Lawyer magazine’s California Lawyer of the Year Award (CLAY) in 2025, and she has been selected by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in 2023 through 2025.

Stephanie joined the firm in 2021 as a Social Justice Fellow and became an associate in 2022.  Stephanie graduated from University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2021.  Stephanie’s commitment to protecting consumers includes her work as a law student advocate at the East Bay Community Law Center’s Consumer Justice Clinic and internships at the Consumer Protection Section of the California Attorney General’s Office and the Government Team at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.  She also served as a student member of the East Bay Community Law Center’s Board of Directors.  Stephanie was the Co-Editor in Chief of Berkeley Law’s Asian American Law Journal, the Senior Notes Editor for the California Law Review, and a co-leader of the Consumer Rights Workshop.

Prior to pursuing law, Stephanie obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature from Brown University and taught courses in literature and essay writing.

Christian S. Giannini

Christian S. Giannini represents employees, tenants, consumers, and persons with disabilities against large corporations and government entities in class action lawsuits throughout California and the United States.  Christian is an active member of BALIF (SF Bay Area’s LGBTQ Bar Association) and UCLA Law’s Alumni Association.

Christian graduated from UCLA School of Law with Pro Bono Distinction in 2024, where he specialized in public interest law and policy alongside top scholars and practitioners.  During law school, Christian externed with Open Door Legal in San Francisco in 2022, defending tenants facing unlawful detainer actions, and DHKL in Oakland in 2023 as a California Employment Lawyers Association Employee Justice Fellow. He also served as Chief Articles Editor for the Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Law Journal and Co-Chair for the Tenants’ Rights Clinic.

Prior to law school, Christian worked as a Paralegal at DHKL from 2019-2021 and returned to the firm in 2024 as an Associate Attorney.  He received a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude in Communications from UCLA in 2019.