Kimberly A. Kralowec

Class Action & Appeals

Plaintiffs’ lawyer, poet, blogger and animal shelter volunteer Kimberly Kralowec’s interests are as varied as the class action matters she handles as founder and principal of her own practice.

“One activity provides a break from the others,” Kralowec said of her work and hobbies. “They use different parts of the brain.”

She focuses on plaintiffs’ class action litigation in antitrust, wage-and-hour, consumer fraud and civil rights. She often works with other attorneys in need of her expertise in appeals or writ proceedings.

For example, she served as lead appellate counsel for a 13,600-member certified class of Apple retail employees who underwent mandatory security searches of their bags and electronic devices. Frlekin v. Apple Inc., 8 Cal.5th 1038 (2020). The California Supreme Court held that the class members were entitled to compensation for their time spent waiting for and undergoing these searches. Kralowec handled the briefing and the oral argument before the California Supreme Court, which led to summary judgment on liability in favor of the certified class.

Kralowec also served as co-lead counsel in a class action alleging Farmers Group Inc. underpaid policyholders by millions of dollars. Farmers allegedly miscalculated the amount of return premiums owed to California policyholders when they canceled home and auto insurance policies. Streit et al. v. Farmers Group Inc., et al., BC434852 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed April 1, 2010). After more than a decade of litigation, including two appeals handled by Kralowec, the court approved a $20 million settlement in favor of the 134,000-member certified class in May 2021.

Kralowec is generous with her legal expertise. She undertakes amicus curiae work for the California Employment Lawyers Association and Consumer Attorneys of California. She also maintains “The UCL Practitioner,” a legal weblog about California’s Unfair Competitive Law and California class action practice.

Kralowec’s first poetry collection, “We retreat into the stillness of our own bones,” was published by Tolsun Publishing Inc. in May. The 36-page book of love poems explores intimacy and the connections between humans and the natural world.

When not litigating or writing, Kralowec volunteers to socialize cats at the San Francisco SPCA. As a cat owner and proponent of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, she took specialized training to help cats feel more at ease in the animal shelter setting.

– Jennifer McEntee