J. Mira Hashmall

In late June, Hashmall represented a client in an arbitration over a labor matter. A couple of weeks later, she argued the question of homelessness before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the County of Los Angeles.

“That’s actually pretty standard for me,” Hashmall said. She is a trial lawyer at a boutique famous for trying cases, yet she is also the firm’s only certified specialist in appellate law.

At the 9th Circuit, Hashmall opposed U.S. District Judge David O. Carter’s injunction ordering the county and city to provide shelter to all the homeless in the downtown Skid Row area. “It was just a really important case, but it also was an example of the limits of litigation,” she said. L.A. Alliance for Human Rights v. City of Los Angeles, 21-55395 (9th Cir., filed April 22, 2021)

Hashmall said she developed her appellate practice “out of necessity” so that she could handle her litigation matters that were being appealed.

“It turned into a really important part of my practice,” she said. “I think being a trial lawyer makes me a better appellate advocate and being an appellate advocate makes me make more careful, strategic decisions in the trial court.”

Several of her successes in the trial courts are now on appeal. In one, she won summary judgment to block litigation by in-home caregivers seeking up to $50 million in unpaid overtime from the county. That case is likely to be argued at the 9th Circuit by the end of the year, she said. Ray v. County of Los Angeles, 20-56245 (9th Cir., filed Nov. 25, 2020)

She won another important county labor case before both the trial and appellate courts. In a lawsuit by deputy sheriffs over payroll, Hashmall obtained a ruling that the county has the exclusive right to regulate matters relating to its employees’ pay. Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs v. County of Los Angeles, 2021 DJDAR 1106 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist., decis. Jan. 29, 2021).

In an unusual employment case, she represents the former name partner of a leading employment law firm who claims his old firm discriminated against him and constructively terminated him. “There’s no loss of irony there,” Hashmall said. Whether his lawsuit must be arbitrated is now on appeal. Carothers v. CDF Labor Law LLP, B313290, (Cal. App. 2nd Dist., filed June 4, 2021).

In another, she won a preliminary injunction blocking L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s attempt to rehire a deputy who had been fired for alleged domestic violence. The sheriff has appealed. County of Los Angeles v. Villanueva, B310871 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist., filed Feb. 11, 2021).

“My appellate docket will be busy in 2021,” Hashmall said.

— Don DeBenedictis