Attorney Bios

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="08478783.jpg"> <div> LAW OFFICES OF MICHAEL S. SORGEN<FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Korinna BT" >   </FONT>   </div> <div> 240 Stockton Street, 9th Floor, San Francisco, CA  94108</div> <div> Tel: (415) 956-1360    Fax: (415) 956-6342   </div> <bR> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=20% BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="08478783.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="sorgen.net home"><U>Home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index_practice_areas.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="sorgen.net home"><U>Practice Areas</U></A></div> <div> Attorneys</div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Representative Cases"><U>Representative</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Representative Cases"><U>Cases</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prospective Client Questionnaire"><U>Prospective Client</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prospective Client Questionnaire"><U>Questionnnaire</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Employment"><U>Employment</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us "><U>Contact Us</U></A>   </div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="08982823.jpg"> <div> Attorneys <A NAME="attorneys_top"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#michael_s__sorgen_1" TITLE="Attorney Bios"><U>Michael S. Sorgen</U></A> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >| </FONT><A HREF="#joyce_s__kawahata_" TITLE="Attorney Bios"><U>Joyce S. Kawahata</U></A> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >| </FONT><A HREF="#andrea_adam_brott" TITLE="Attorney Bios"><U>Andrea Adam Brott</U></A> | <A HREF="#ryan_l__hicks" TITLE="Attorney Bios"><U>Ryan L. Hicks</U></A> |<A HREF="#stephen_a__rosenbaum" TITLE="Attorney Bios"><U>Stephen A. Rosenbaum</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="0ae73970.jpg" border=0 width="115" height="151" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><B> <A NAME="michael_s__sorgen_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>   </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Charter BT" ><B>Michael S. Sorgen</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Charter BT" > </FONT>is a 1967 <I>cum laude</I> graduate of Harvard Law School and has a B.A. (<I>magna cum laude</I>) from Brown University. He is admitted to the bars of California, District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Sorgen began his legal career at San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Aid Foundation where he engaged in poverty law reform.  He was lead counsel in numerous precedent setting cases involving the rights of children. These include <I>Wells v. One2One Learning Foundation,</I> (2006) 39 Cal 4th 1164, where the California Supreme Court authorized proceedings as private attorneys general to curb sham practices by charter schools engaged in "distant learning" for home-educated children throughout the state; <I>Scott v. Mayer</I>, (N.D. Cal. 1969) where the federal court implemented the right to counsel for juveniles in San Francisco Juvenile Court and established a full-time Public Defender office there; <I>Charles S. v. Board of Education,</I> 20 Cal.App.3d 83 (1971) and <I>Wong v. Hayakawa</I>, 464 F.2d 1282 (9th Cir. 1972) which established due process for students in school disciplinary proceedings; <I>T.N.G. v. Superior Court</I>, 4 Cal.3d 767 (1970), where the California Supreme Court vindicated the rights of minors to have their juvenile court records sealed; and <I>In Re William M.</I>, 3 Cal.3d 16 (1970) granting a right to pretrial release in lieu of bail. </div> <bR> <div>      From 1971 to 1976, he was a full-time adjunct professor of law at Hastings College of the Law, where he was responsible for the Civil Litigation Clinic from 1971 through 1976.  He was the originating attorney in <I>Larry P. v. Riles</I>, 502 F.2d 963 (9th Cir. 1974), affirming an  injunction against the use of I.Q. tests for placing African-American children in classes for the mentally retarded and awarding attorneys’ fees.</div> <bR> <div>      He served as General Counsel to the Oakland Unified School District from 1976 through 1980 and taught education law clinics at Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley) and Golden Gate University. He directly represented the School District in significant litigation, including a defense of its set-aside for minority contractors, <I>Schmidt & Pollard v. Oakland Unified School District</I>, 662 F.2d 550 (9th Circuit, cert. denied 1981). He also defended the School District successfully in numerous employment cases, including those in which disability, gender and race discrimination were alleged, and as to numerous issues involving intergovernmental financing and authority. </div> <div>      Mr. Sorgen taught civil procedure and education law as a visiting professor of law at Whittier Law School, 1982 to1983; Fulbright Professor of Law, Université de Nice, France, 1980 to 1981, and Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, 1985 to 1986, teaching comparative constitutional law and human rights. </div> <div>      Since beginning his private practice in 1986, notable successes include <I>Wells v. One2One Learning Foundation,</I> (2006) 39 Cal 4th 1164, where the California Supreme Court authorized proceedings as private attorneys general to curb sham practices by charter schools engaged in "distant learning" for home-educated children throughout the state; the <I>Children's Hospital </I>cases reforming California's system of Medicaid reimbursement, see representative cases <I>infra.; </I><I>Singer v. Regents</I>, where the California Court of Appeal reinstated a jury verdict assuring inventors of the MRI a fair royalty. The total recovery exceeded $4 million.  In a similar case in federal court, the parties resolved a dispute as to proprietorship and value of a patent; <I>Newton v. County of Napa</I>, 217 Cal.App.3d 1551 (1990), protecting the rights of children and their parents from abusive practices by the County’s Child Protective Service; and <I>Allen v. Scribner</I>, 812 F.2d 426 (9th Cir. 1987), a leading Ninth Circuit decision on the rights of whistle blowers.</div> <bR> <div> Author: <U>State, School & Family</U>, <U>CEB</U>, <U>California Civil Writ Practice</U></div> <div> Languages: French, Spanish</div> <bR> <div> Member: National Employment Lawyers Association, Human Rights Advocates, National Lawyers Guild, Employment and Constitutional Law Committees of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Litigation and Employment sections of State Bar of California.</div> <bR> <div> Rated AV ® Preeminent <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >TM</FONT> by Martindale-Hubbell.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" ><B> <IMG SRC="0ad73930.jpg" border=0 width="115" height="147" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></FONT> <A NAME="joyce_s__kawahata_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A>   <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Charter BT" ><B>Joyce S. Kawahata</B></FONT> is a 1983 graduate of University of California at Davis Law School.  She holds a Bachelor of Art’s degree with honors from the University of California at Los Angeles in Asian Languages and spent three years as a Mombusho Scholar in Japan researching Japanese literature.  She was a research attorney for Contra Costa County Superior Court law and motion department from 1985-1987. She has been associated with Mr. Sorgen's practice since 1987, primarily in the area of plaintiff's employment law.  She currently serves as the firm's technical and personnel administrator, while simultaneously doing legal work on pending cases.</div> <bR> <div> Author: <U>California Civil Writ Practice</U> supplements.</div> <div> Languages: Japanese, Spanish</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>     </B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" ><B> </B></FONT><B><IMG SRC="0e27e9c0.jpg" border=0 width="126" height="156" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><B> <A NAME="andrea_adam_brott"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" ><B> </B><B>  </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Charter BT" ><B>Andrea Adam Brott</B></FONT> is a 1985 graduate of the New York University School of Law, where she was an editor of the <U>Annual Survey of American Law</U> and published an article on developments in evidence law. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (<I>magna cum laude</I>) from Harvard University. Prior to joining Mr. Sorgen’s practice in 1994, she was an associate in the litigation department of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, where she did extensive work in the area of civil liberties, her primary interest. </div> <bR> <div>      After seven years of litigation, Ms. Brott reached a settlement of an excessive force case against the City and County of San Francisco that establishes a full-time ombudsperson to assure better treatment of children detained at the Youth Guidance Center in San Francisco, <I>Jackson v. City and County of San Francisco</I> (N.D. Cal.). Ms. Brott obtained substantial monetary settlements including attorneys’ fees and the client’s promotion to a high level management position in two recent discrimination cases.  Ms. Brott and Mr. Sorgen also served as lead counsel in a class action, <I>Laurie Q. v. Contra Costa County</I> to vindicate the civil rights of disabled children in the foster care dependency system.  Ms. Brott does complex business and civil rights litigation and has litigated numerous cutting-edge issues relating to liability and governmental immunities, constitutional protections and civil procedures. </div> <bR> <div> Languages: Hebrew</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  <IMG SRC="0d569870.jpg" border=0 width="105" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">    <A NAME="ryan_l__hicks"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Charter BT" ><B>Ryan L. Hicks</B></FONT> is a 2008 graduate of The University of California Hastings College of the Law and holds a B.A. in Business Administration from The University of Washington. While a law student, Mr. Hicks served on the Board of Directors for the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal; participated in the Hastings Criminal Practice Clinic and worked at the San Francisco District Attorney's Office for a year, representing the people of California in criminal arraignments, preliminary hearings and evidentiary suppression hearings.</div> <bR> <div> In the three years at the Law Offices of Michael Sorgen, Mr. Hicks has had civil case experience at all stages from pre-litigation settlement negotiations through the appellate process. He has litigated individual and collective cases brought against government as well as private defendants, including: class actions and other complex litigation in both state and federal court, including multi-district litigation; age, race, religion, national origin and disability discrimination cases; wage and hour and other Labor Code violations; whistleblower retaliation claims; unfair business practices; defamation; invasion of privacy; tortious economic interference; <I>qui tam</I> claims arising under the California False Claims Act; constitutional and other civil rights violations, and; preemption claims against the state under the federal Medicare statutes against the State. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#attorneys_top" TITLE="Attorney Bios"><U>Back to Top</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Of Counsel</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="stephen_a__rosenbaum"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>Stephen A. Rosenbaum</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" > is a 1980 graduate of University of California, Berkeley School of Law (BerkeleyLaw). He is admitted to the bars of California, all federal district courts in California, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court.</FONT></div> <div> Mr. Rosenbaum was associated for many years with Disability Rights California as a staff attorney, where he worked on behalf of special education students and persons with developmental disabilities. Before that, as a staff attorney with Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund and California Rural Legal Assistance, he litigated a number of impact cases in federal and state court on behalf of immigrants and persons with disabilities. He has authored numerous publications on special education, disability rights and human rights.  In 2005 and 2006, he received advocacy awards from Bay Area disability organizations.</div> <div> Mr. Rosenbaum served as one of the principal counsel in litigation facilitating the legalization of long-term immigrants, including <I>Catholic Social Services v. Thornburgh</I>, 956 F.2d 914 (9<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >th</FONT> Cir. 1992), <I>judg’t vacated sub nom. Reno v. CSS,</I> 509 U.S. 43 (1993); <I>Zambrano v. INS</I>, 972 F.2d 1122 (9<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >th</FONT> Cir. 1992); <I>Naranjo-Aguillera v. U.S. INS</I>, 30 F.3d 1107 (9<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >th</FONT> Cir. 1994); and <I>Perez v. INS</I>, 72 F.3d 256 (2d Cir. 1995 <I>amicus curiae</I>). He was also one of the lead counsel in <I>Lauderbach v. Zolin</I>, 35 Cal.App.4<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >th</FONT> 578 (1995) (driver license eligibility for undocumented immigrants); <I>Gutierrez v. EDD</I>, 14 Cal.App.1791, <I>reh. denied</I> (1993)(unemployment benefits eligibility); and <I>Chow v. Meissner</I> N.D. Cal. 1996)(disabled immigrant citzenship eligibility). Rosenbaum was counsel in a number of education cases: <I>Raimey v. Larkspur USD</I> (Marin Co. Super Ct.); <I>Charles v. Oakland USD</I> (N.D. Cal); <I>Michael E. v. Santa Paula Ele. Sch. Dist</I>. (Ventura Co. Super Ct.); <I>Pajaro Valley USD v. J.S.</I> (N.D. Cal.), 2006 WL 3734289; <I>Schl. Dist. of Valley Grove v. Girty</I>, 60 Fed. Appx. 889 (3d Cir. 2002) <I>amicus curiae</I>; and <I>Tri-County Special Ed. Local Planning Area v. Co.of Tuolumne</I>, 123 Cal.App.4<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Charter BT" >th</FONT> 563 (2004 <I>amicus curiae</I>).  Anti-discrimination cases he litigated while previously associate with the Sorgen firm include:  <I>Mednick v. Peninsula Temple Beth El, Mayfield v. Bay Area Air Quality Mgt. Dist.</I>  and <I>Lee v. City and Co. of San Francisco</I>.</div> <div> Mr. Rosenbaum has also been a Lecturer at Berkeley Law School since 1988 (civil rights litigation, mental health law, social justice skills, university student rights) and teaches disability rights at Stanford Law School and a youth law seminar at Golden Gate Law School.  He has conducted numerous training workshops for parents (in English and Spanish), school professionals, lawyers and administrative law judges in the area of special education.</div> <div> As a recipient of U.S. Speaker & Specialist grants from the Department of State, Mr. Rosenbaum has lectured (in French) to jurists, journalists and non-governmental activists in francophone Africa on such themes as alternative dispute resolution, judicial independence and human rights. In 2007, he was asked to help establish a law school clinic and bar association <I>pro bono</I> program in Togo. In 2008, Mr. Rosenbaum was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) School of Critical Studies in Education. He was awarded a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship at Harvard Law School in 2002.</div> <div> Member: ACLU of Northern California Board of Directors, Berkeley Youth Living with Disabilities Board of Directors, Human Rights Advocates, National Lawyers Guild</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#attorneys_top" TITLE="Attorney Bios"><U>Back to Top</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>