Michael Rubin

“My practice is focused on protecting the rights of low wage workers,” Rubin said, a straightforward mission resulting in complex and groundbreaking cases that came to a head in the last year.

The lawyer settled a case with McDonald’s Corp, for about $4.75 million in October, a matter seminal in establishing joint employer liability, that is demonstrating in court that corporations — instead of just their subsidiaries — are liable for wage-and-hour violations. Ochoa et al. v. McDonald’s Corp. et al., 14-CV2098 (N.D. Cal., filed March 12, 2014).

Rubin also represented McDonald’s Restaurants of California Inc. overnight workers who sued corporate-owned California stores for violating the state’s overtime policy. He won a landmark victory when Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones issued a summary judgment ruling that the giant corporation’s overtime policy itself violated California law.

The win was mitigated when Jones issued a tentative ruling that the fast food chain was liable for just under $800,000 in overtime payments and penalties, under the state’s Private Attorneys General Act, an order for which Rubin filed an objection to in late June. Sanchez et al. v. McDonald’s Restaurants of California Inc. et al., BC499888 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 24, 2013).

A more lucrative PAGA case for the lawyers’ clients was a seminal settlement with Bank of America for not providing its tellers an option to sit on the job.

Earlier in 2016, Rubin argued before the state Supreme Court that service workers who perform their job while seated are allowed to sit, per a hitherto obscure state wage order.

His case was strong enough for a mainly plaintiff-friendly ruling that forced Bank of America and other corporations to provide seats and settle cases. Bank of America settled a longstanding seat case last October involving 23,000 tellers for $15 million. Garrett v. Bank of America, RG-13699027 (Alameda Super. Ct., filed May 26, 2011).

— Matthew Blake