Jean K. Hyams

Hyams emerged in the past year as chair of the California Employment Lawyer Association executive board, the 30-year-old organization that tries to provide a unified offense against defense attorneys often from well-financed national firms.

“We have an open-source ethos,” Hyams said, referring to the organization’s growing listserv, in which plaintiff attorneys pool their collective knowledge.

“If someone’s in trial and needs an answer to a question,” she continued, “you drop what you’re doing.”

As the Trump administration has been a time of trembling anticipation for many worker-side employment lawyers, Hyams said, CELA has worked with the National Employers Lawyers Association on cases outside the state, while “holding the line in California.”

The group has worked in the past year to increase the diversity of its 1,300-lawyer members, lobby against legislation in California to weaken the Private Attorney’s General Act — a qui tam action for workers that’s morphed into a bulwark against individual arbitration agreements, and write amicus briefs in cases regarding the limits of employment arbitration contracts.

For her own litigation, Hyams is involved in cases against Wells Fargo and Company regarding the bank allegedly creating more than 1.5 million unauthorized bank accounts and issuing more than 500,000 unauthorized credit cards amid the company’s zeal to grow.

A whistleblower case against Wells Fargo filed by Judyann Rodriguez, an Emeryville branch employee, has survived its initial stages, with a trial set for Dec. 18 regarding whether the defendant retaliated against Rodriguez, “a low-level employee” according to a trial brief, who was participating in what she considered fraud. Rodriguez v. Wells Fargo and Company, RG16805381 (Alameda Super. Ct., Feb. 25, 2016).

“Judyann Rodriguez was a pawn and a victim of the forces at play in the Wells Fargo scandal,” Hyams said.

— Matthew Blake