E-Served: Jan 21 2020 9:18AM PST Via Case Anywhere 1 David M. deRubertis, State Bar No. 208709 The deRubertis Law Firm, APC 2 4219 Coldwater Canyon Avenue Studio City, California 91604 3 Telephone:(818) 761-2322 Facsimile: (818) 761-2323 4 E-mail: [email protected] 5 Lee R. Feldman, State Bar No. 171628 Alicia Olivares, State Bar No. 181412 6 FELDMAN BROWNE OLIVARES A Professional Corporation 7 12400 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California 90025 8 Telephone:(310) 207-8500 Facsimile: (310) 207-8515 9 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] 10 Attorneys for Plaintiffs 11 Danessa Valentine & Jalisa Moore 12 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 13 FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, SPRING STREET COURTHOUSE 14 DANESSA VALENTINE, an individual; Case No.: BC602184 15 JALISA MOORE, an individual; and all [Assigned for all purposes to the Hon. Carolyn B. others similarly situated, Kuhl, Department 12] 16 Plaintiffs, DECLARATION OF DAVID M. deRUBERTIS 17 IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR FINAL v. APPROVAL OF CLASS ACTION 18 SETTLEMENT AND MOTION FOR COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, a public APPROVAL OF ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND 19 entity; and DOES 1 to 100, inclusive, COSTS 20 Defendants. Date: February 13, 2020 Time: 10:00 a.m. 21 Dept.: 12 22 Complaint filed: November 24, 2015 Trial: NONE 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 DECL OF DAVID M. DERUBERTIS ISO MOTION FOR FINAL APPROVAL OF CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT & MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF ATTORNEYS’ FEES & COSTS 1 DECLARATION OF DAVID M. deRUBERTIS, ESQ.: 2 I, David M. deRubertis, Esq., hereby declare as follows: 3 1. I am an attorney at law duly licensed to practice before all Courts of the State of 4 California and am the principal in the deRubertis Law Firm, APC and was one of the co-lead 5 attorneys for the Plaintiffs in this action. If called upon to testify, I could and would competently 6 attest to the following, which is submitted of my own personal knowledge. 7 8 2. This Declaration is submitted in support of Plaintiffs’ motion for final approval of 9 the proposed class action settlement and/or motion for approval of attorney’s fees and costs. 10 3. I am the principal in the deRubertis Law Firm, APC, an employment and trial 11 boutique firm, where I concentrate on handling and trying employment matters on behalf of 12 employees throughout California. 13 14 15 I. BACKGROUND, TRAINING, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE: 16 4. While I have been a member of the Bar since the year 2000, my experience in this 17 field is much deeper and broader than my admission date reflects. When I was sixteen (16) years 18 old, I began working in the office of McCulloch & deMontesquiou, a plaintiff’s consumer attorney 19 firm then-based in Encino, California. I worked continuously at McCulloch & deMontesquiou 20 from approximately July of 1990 through June of 1997, when the firm dissolved. During that time 21 period, I became intricately involved in all aspects of the firm’s practice, ranging from drafting 22 23 appellate briefs to “second-chairing” all trials with one of the firm’s partners, Paul A. 24 deMontesquiou. The trial work consisted of attending court and assisting Mr. deMontesquiou 25 while sitting at counsel’s table, helping prepare witnesses and conducting mock witness 26 examinations of them, participating in strategy sessions relating to theory or themes of the case, 27 briefing evidentiary issues and in limine motions and all other aspects of trial work. I participated 28 2 DECL OF DAVID M. DERUBERTIS ISO MOTION FOR FINAL APPROVAL OF CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT & MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF ATTORNEYS’ FEES & COSTS 1 in my first full-length trial (i.e., attending every day of trial with Mr. deMontesquiou and assisting 2 him at counsel table) of approximately six (6) to eight (8) weeks long in the summer of 1993, when 3 I was nineteen (19) years old during my college first year summer. Over the next four (4) years, I 4 participated in approximately ten (10) completed jury trials with Mr. deMontesquiou, which 5 included verdicts of $5,300,000.00 in a wrongful death case and $800,000.00 in a medical 6 malpractice case. In these cases, I essentially sat “second-chair” with Mr. deMontesquiou at 7 8 counsel table, performing all functions that a “second-chair” would perform other than making 9 formal arguments to the Court or handling witnesses inside of the courtroom. 10 5. While I received offers of admission to many of the country’s finest law schools 11 (e.g., Columbia, Boalt Hall/U.C. Berkley, N.Y.U, U.C.L.A., U.S.C., etc.), I chose to attend Loyola 12 Law School in Los Angeles because of its practical focus on training trial lawyers and because I 13 received a full scholarship upon admission. I graduated summa cum laude and Order of the Coif 14 15 from Loyola Law School in 2000 with a cumulative grade point average of 92.05 (class rank of 2 16 of 297). I was the recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship and received awards for the highest grade in 17 twelve (12) different classes. I was a member of Loyola’s prestigious Byrne Trial Advocacy 18 Team, which is consistently considered one of the nation’s top law school mock trial advocacy 19 teams by the U.S News & World Report’s Annual Ranking, and on the Byrne Team I won a 20 national mock trial competition (Georgetown University Law Center 2nd Annual National White 21 Collar Crime Mock Trial Invitational, November 1998). I also received the highest ranking in the 22 23 1998 Loyola Law School Intramural Trial Advocacy Competition, the award for winning the 24 annual Byrne Trial Advocacy Competition, and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) 25 award for Excellence in the Preparation for Trial Law Award. Following graduation from law 26 school, I also served as an assistant coach for the Byrne Trial Advocacy Team, where I instructed 27 students on trial skills. In terms of appellate advocacy, I was a finalist in Scott Moot Court 28 3 DECL OF DAVID M. DERUBERTIS ISO MOTION FOR FINAL APPROVAL OF CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT & MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF ATTORNEYS’ FEES & COSTS 1 Competition, which is a mock appellate argument tournament. Also while in law school, I had a 2 year-long externship as a Certified Law Clerk at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, where 3 I personally conducted approximately eighty (80) criminal preliminary hearings and approximately 4 twenty (20) juvenile criminal bench trials (juvenile adjudications) also as a certified law student. 5 6. Immediately after passing the bar, I opened my own law practice in November of 6 2000 handling a variety of plaintiff’s contingency matters. Since then I have conducted 7 8 approximately twenty-seven (27) trials in both state and federal courts (approximately twenty-one 9 [21] jury and six [6] bench trials), as well as two [2] binding arbitrations. I have a statewide 10 practice, having tried cases from as far South as San Diego County to as far North as Sacramento 11 and Yolo Counties, as well as multiple counties in between. 12 7. I have obtained multiple multi-million dollar employment jury verdicts – including 13 obtaining as lead counsel record-setting employment verdicts. For example, in 2014, as lead trial 14 15 counsel in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, I obtained a 16 $6,000,000 Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation jury verdict plus a finding of malice, fraud or oppression (at 17 which point the matter resolved confidentially before the jury determined the amount of punitive 18 damages). Even before punitive damages, this was at the time the largest Sarbanes-Oxley 19 retaliation verdict in history in the entire country and it remains today the largest compensatory 20 damage jury verdict in the history of the Sarbanes-Oxley law. In 2017, I obtained as lead trial 21 counsel what is believed to be the largest associational disability discrimination jury verdict in 22 23 California to date under the FEHA in a trial in San Diego. Back in 2004, as co-counsel I helped 24 obtain $19,000,000 in a single plaintiff disability discrimination case. This was the largest 25 employment verdict in the nation in 2004 and was at the time believed to be the largest single 26 plaintiff disability discrimination/California Family Rights Act verdict in California history at the 27 time. I have also been lead trial counsel in numerous employment-related jury trials that have 28 4 DECL OF DAVID M. DERUBERTIS ISO MOTION FOR FINAL APPROVAL OF CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT & MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF ATTORNEYS’ FEES & COSTS 1 resulted in numerous seven- and six-figure jury verdicts, and have settled many multi-million 2 dollar employment cases confidentially (i.e., $8,500,000; $6,250,000 on a termination case with 3 only five hundred thousand dollars [$500,000] in economic damage; $5,25,000; $4,500,000 in a 4 termination case with zero economic damages; $4,200,000; $3,850,000; $3,425,000; etc.). I have 5 also settled an employment discrimination class action for fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000), as 6 well as many multi-million-dollar wage and hour class action matters. 7 8 8. A substantial portion of my practice consists of being asked to step in to try 9 employment cases for or with other attorneys, often after discovery is done and on the “eve of 10 trial.” In the last five (5) years, somewhere between fifty to seventy-five percent (50-75%) of my 11 practice has consisted of stepping into employment cases for other attorneys to either try the case 12 or complete the work-up and try it.