Mary-Christine "M.C." Sungaila

For Sungaila, three successful impact litigation cases stood out. She argued on behalf of transgender asylum seekers before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and persuaded the panel on behalf of her client, Fidel Mondragon Alday, that a transgender woman's asylum claim should be assessed differently from that of a gay asylum seeker. In the face of the government's contrary contention, she asserted that even favorable changes in the law of a country may have no effect on the day-to-day violence transgender individuals continue to experience.

The panel agreed, holding ?- as Sungaila had insisted -? that "laws recognizing same-sex marriage may do little to protect a transgender woman from discrimination, police harassment and violent attacks in daily life." Noted Sungaila, "The outcome has had an immediate impact on the immigration court, and I expect that the government will now look at these cases very differently."

For the chairman of Jimmy John's Sandwich Shops, Sungaila obtained his dismissal from a potential class action alleging wage and hour and non-compete claims. It was a satisfying win in part because such dismissals are rare, Sungaila said. That was in part because her defense of client Jimmy John Liataud, the founder of the chain, turned on arguments Sungaila had made in a major 2014 win in the California Supreme Court that shielded franchise parents from liability for acts of their franchisees.

"What a lot of us enjoy as appellate lawyers is to have an impact on the law," Sungaila said. "Trial lawyers can get great singular results, but they don't necessarily resonate."

She was the lead appellate lawyer for intervening parents in the first state appellate case in the U.S. to decide that a school district's fitness yoga program, scrubbed of spiritual references, did not constitute an impermissible establishment of religion under the U.S. and California constitutions. It was one of the few cases to interpret the California constitution's establishment clause, setting important precedent for yoga and meditation programs in public schools. "Some parents held that yoga is a gateway to Hinduism, and they believed very strongly in their position," Sungaila said.

The case, venued in San Diego, drew worldwide media attention. "The Court of Appeal allowed cameras in the courtroom for oral argument," Sungaila said. "We appellate lawyers aren't used to that sort of thing. It was like a trial." Outside waited media throngs. Sungaila, who said she takes an occasional yoga class herself, said she ducked. "I had the good sense to have my very accomplished trial counsel handle the media," she said.

? John Roemer