Kitty K. Szeto

Class Actions

Lancaster

K itty Szeto has spent the past 15 years specializing in plaintiff-side wage-and-hour and consumer class actions since her graduation from Loyola Law School in 2008.

"The ability to help tens of thousands of employees and consumers through a single case is very rewarding," she said.

Mentored by Rex Parris, Szeto said she was swiftly introduced to the intricacies of trial law at the Parris Law Firm. Her early exposure to high-stakes environments, such as second-chairing a trial and cross-examining a key witness with minimal notice, underscored the importance of perpetual preparedness -- a lesson that has significantly shaped her approach to law.

"The fact that Rex trusted me to take me to trial with him and later one making me one of the Partners at the PARRIS Law Firm is a journey that I will never forget," Szeto said.

Over the past decade, she's obtained a $4.3 million jury verdict against Halo Resorts, one of California's largest fraud verdicts, for misrepresenting membership terms and imposing undisclosed fees.

Her expertise further extends to leading high-profile wage and hour class action cases, exemplified by securing an $8.5 million settlement for misclassified Lime employees.

She was also part of a second class action brought by her firm against Allstate.

In 2005, as a result of the first class action filed, Allstate reclassified all its claims adjusters from salary to hourly. However, the claims adjusters' workload remained the same, and yet, Allstate failed to pay them overtime and provide legally compliant meal and rest breaks, Szeto said.

"This case lasted over a decade and was hard-fought along the way," she said. "We were able to obtain class certification (which was appealed to the Ninth Circuit) and were in the middle of Daubert challenges when the parties reached a settlement. I worked on this case from its inception and saw it through for 10 years. I put in a lot of hours to achieve an amazing result for these adjusters."

Voicing observations, Szeto said arbitration agreements have made class actions and PAGA cases more difficult, which is extremely unfortunate for the employees who need to be protected.

"Employees are required to sign away their day in court as a condition of employment," Szeto said. "I think this will really limit the ability for employees and consumers to have their day in court and will result in a suppression of employee rights with employers getting away with wage theft and other violations of employee rights in California."