Samuel A. Wong 

Samuel A. Wong founded Aegis Law Firm PC in 2003 with law partner Kashif Haque to represent workers in employment law cases. The firm has grown and prospered; eight other lawyers are currently on the staff. Over the last year, their class action and Private Attorneys General Act filings have resulted in settlements totaling more than $100 million on behalf of employees for wage and hour violations.

“We had good-paying jobs back then,” Wong said of the decision he and Haque made to strike out on their own. “I was at Paul Hastings, doing defense work, but I didn’t have a passion for defense. I could see that on the other side of the courtroom, what the plaintiff lawyers were doing, looked a lot more interesting. In sports terms, the plaintiff lawyers were the ones with the ball.”

Wong said he instinctively sided with oppressed workers. His folks emigrated from China in the 1970; his mother worked in garment industry sweatshops in both nations. Wong, born in the U.S., sometimes, as a child, went with his mom to work and saw what conditions were like. He was the first in his immediate family to attend law school.

“The first years at our little law firm were difficult. We were two young attorneys without much knowledge or many connections. But the last five years or so have been very good to us,” Wong said. In 2023, the Daily Journal detailed nine mass tort settlements ranging from $320,000 to more than a million dollars.

Typical was a class action that settled for $5.5 million on behalf of home health care workers who contended that their employer shorted them through a variety of maneuvers: failure to pay minimum wages and to provide uninterrupted meal and rest periods; failure to reimburse for necessary business expenses or to provide accurate itemized wage statements. Crandall v. Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc. et al., 30-2017-00940239-CU-OE-CXC (Orange Co. Super. Ct., filed June 19, 2017).

Wong declined to comment specifically on the case, citing a confidentiality agreement. But he noted that in many cases, the outcome promotes reform. “Class members know what happened and after a settlement, they call us if the negative conduct continues because they know we’ll sue again,” Wong said.

If the evidence is right, companies tend to settle to avoid trial, he added. “The defense is always worried about the potential for a huge judgment, and through timely settlements, we do well for class members. It’s rewarding work.”

—John Roemer