Lisa Ells

Complex Litigation

San Francisco

After initially working in business and tech roles, Lisa Ells pursued law school with a desire for intellectual engagement and a commitment to social good.

"My entire legal career has been at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP," she said. "It's the perfect fit for someone like me who is naturally curious because we are generalists and I'm constantly learning new things. At the same time, I get to work on cutting edge constitutional and civil rights cases in the public interest. I'm lucky to have found such a unique firm with wonderful, brilliant, committed colleagues -- there's nowhere else quite like it."

Her recent work at the trial and appellate levels, including major recent victories in cases concerning constitutional law, land use, First Amendment and disability access.

As the lead counsel for publisher Prison Legal News (PLN), Ells played a pivotal role in securing a landmark $2.65 million fee award this spring. This award was the culmination of a nine-year legal battle against the unconstitutional mail practices of the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Ells successfully defended PLN's First Amendment rights on appeal, challenging ADC's censorship of PLN's news publication. The Ninth Circuit ruled that ADC's policy banning sexually suggestive materials was unconstitutional, both on its face and as applied to Prison Legal News, resulting in an award of over $200,000 in appellate fees for PLN.

"My team also won a summary judgment ruling that ADC violated PLN's Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, entitling PLN to damages, which ADC did not appeal," Ells said. "To my knowledge, the $3 million sum constitutes the largest attorneys' fee recovery in a prison censorship case in U.S. history. Awards like this support the viability of civil rights work across the county, especially in First Amendment cases where damages are hard to prove."

Ells is also co-lead counsel in Coleman v. Newsom, an injunctive case concerning the rights of over 34,000 incarcerated people to constitutionally adequate mental health care in California's prisons.

"In Fall 2023, I led plaintiffs' team in a four-day bench trial seeking to hold the state accountable for failures to hire sufficient numbers of clinical staff to treat the Coleman class, at which over $125 million in contempt fines are at issue," Ells said.

In March 2024, the district court announced its tentative decision finding the state in contempt and imposing fines, which the court stated would become final if a focused period of court-ordered mediation failed, which it did.

"The district court is expected to issue the order holding the State in contempt any day now," Ells said.