David M. deRubertis

For two years in a row, deRubertis has been a finalist for the Street Fighter of the Year award of the Consumer Attorneys of California — and he's proud of his reputation for pugnacity.

"To me, 'street fighter' refers to the fact that we put everything we have into making a case and don't hold anything back," he said.

For example, deRubertis says he recently racked up $475,000 in out-of-pocket expenses ? lining up experts, taking 50 depositions, hiring a jury consultant ? while representing a woman in a disability discrimination suit against the San Diego call center where she worked.

Other workers at the Pacific Bell/AT&T Inc. call center had previously slapped it with a class action accusing management of punishing workers who took too much medical or family leave. Their suit, representing 4,235 workers, was settled last November for $16.8 million.

But Angela Hernandez, who said she had been fired for the time off she took to deal with her migraines, opted out of class action and turned to deRubertis, who prefers individual claims.

"I understand the need for class actions, but individual cases can also expose systemic issues within a company," he said.

As the case approached the trial date, deRubertis said the call center offered Hernandez $400,000 to settle her claim. The proposal was far higher than the $30,000 deRubertis estimates she would have gotten through the class action. But Hernandez declined.

"Instead of settling, we said, 'Bring it on,'" deRubertis said. "The trend in jury verdicts shows that there is a consistent under-settling of cases."

At trial, Hernandez's claims were bolstered by a former manager at the call center, who testified that he and other managers were specifically told to target employees taking large amounts of medical leave. In April, a San Diego County Superior Court jury awarded her $2 million, including $1.5 million in punitive damages. Attorneys' fees could total as high as $3 million, deRubertis estimates, based on the number of hours he worked and the potential that the judge might add a multiplier.

Of course, deRubertis doesn't take every case to trial. In the past two years alone, he has had half a dozen settlements of between $1 million and $7 million. That includes a $1.5 million settlement in April with the city of Manhattan Beach, resolving former administrative assistant Patricia Schilling's claims of harassment and retaliation against former City Manager David Carmany, who was fired in November 2013 seven months after he fired Schilling.

DeRubertis said the settlement appears to be the most that the city has ever paid in a single-plaintiff employment suit. But he still says that in general, he likes to bring cases to trial.

"One advantage that plaintiffs in employment trials have is that everyone has had a jerk boss before, including the jurors, which makes it easier to relate to the claims," he said.

— Dean Calbreath