Michael Rubin, Esq.

About The Lecturer

Michael’s practice consists primarily of appellate litigation, class actions, and public policy/impact litigation. He has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, the California, Alaska, Indiana, and Nevada Supreme Courts, and state and federal appellate courts throughout the country.

Michael is currently a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and was formerly a member of the Board of Directors of the AFL-CIO’s Lawyers’ Coordinating Committee. Michael regularly lectures on developments in California and federal employment law and other topics, including at Stanford Law School and Berkeley Law, and has testified before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives on labor and employment issues.

Michael has won an unprecedented seven “California Lawyer of the Year” (CLAY) awards from California Lawyer Magazine/Daily Journal, winning four times in the Employment Law category (in 2019 for his work in the California Supreme Court on the Dynamex independent-contractor misclassification case; in 2016 for his trial and appellate work in the Walmart warehouse workers joint-employer class action; in 2013 for his California Supreme Court work on the Brinker meal-period and rest-break case; and in 2002 for his trial work on the Saipan sweatshop litigation), once in the Worker Health and Safety category (in 2017 for his work on Kilby v. CVS in the California Supreme Court establishing the obligation of California employers to provide “suitable seating” to workers at fixed workstations), once for False Claims Act Litigation (in 2010 for his work that resulted in a $78 million settlement of government fraud claims against the for-profit University of Phoenix), and once for Criminal Law (also in 2010, for more than a quarter century of work in the state and federal trial and appellate courts on behalf of a death penalty inmate that resulted in his client’s unconditional release from prison in 2010 – a case that also resulted in Michael receiving the “Johnnie Cochran” award from the Criminal Courts Bar Association).

Michael has been recognized by the California Daily Journal nearly every year since 2016 as one of California’s “Top Labor and Employment Lawyers” and during seven of those years as among the “Top 100 Lawyers in California,” was a recipient of a “Trial Lawyer of the Year” Award from the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice in 2003 for his work on the Saipan litigation, and was American Lawyer Magazine’s “Litigator of the Week” in May 2013 for his work on behalf of five professional sports unions in the Hart v. Electronic Arts right-of-publicity case in the Third Circuit. In December 2017, Michael was honored with the San Francisco Anti-Defamation League’s “Distinguished Jurisprudence” award.

In his spare time, Michael enjoys refereeing youth soccer, playing classical piano, and listening to the Grateful Dead.

Education

J.D., Georgetown University Law Center

A.B., Brandeis University