Jenny S. Yelin  

Jenny S. Yelin, who has been with her firm since 2012, practices employment litigation primarily on the plaintiff’s side. She handles a wide variety of employment cases, including wage and hour violations, class actions, PAGA matters, discrimination and other workplace disputes.

She also negotiates employment agreements and separation agreements for executives and faculty members at major public and private universities.

Along with the nonprofit Legal Aid at Work, Yelin recently filed a class-action lawsuit against the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), the agency that manages California unemployment benefits. Okamura v. Employment Development Department, et al., 23CV036020 (Alameda Sup. Ct., filed June 14, 2023).

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a group of California workers who received unemployment insurance benefits during the pandemic, alleges that the EDD fails to properly inform plaintiffs and other claimants when it makes decisions to deny benefits, to accuse claimants of fraud or to demand repayment of benefits.

When Renee Okamura and Kathryn Din were forced to leave their work during the pandemic, both sought and received unemployment benefits. However, years later, Okamura was accused of making false statements in her unemployment claim, and Din was told she had been paid in error. Both women were told they needed to repay thousands of dollars.

The complaint alleges that the EDD failed to properly inform thousands of claimants of these types of decisions, sending notices by regular mail, often to an outdated address, rather than reaching out in other, more reliable ways. Many claimants do not find out about these decisions until the deadline to appeal has passed and the plaintiffs argue this constitutes a violation of their due process rights.

“A lot of people just never get the notice, and they may find out months or years later that their wages are being garnished, or their tax refund is being taken away,” Yelin said. “There are also a lot of issues with the notices themselves; they’re very difficult to understand, and they don’t clearly explain that people have a right to appeal the negative determination.

“Given how many Californians rely on unemployment — and during the pandemic, it was an especially difficult time — we want to make sure the system is improved so that people receive timely and adequate notice of these determinations.”

Yelin also is a trained mediator and a member of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s mediation panel. She mediates a variety of civil cases, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and employment matters.

Yelin has also been volunteering with Legal Aid at Work for more than 10 years and regularly serves as a supervising attorney for the organization’s San Francisco Workers’ Rights Clinic.

— Jennifer Chung Klam