Laura L. Ho

Attorneys

Photo of Laura Ho

Laura L. Ho joined Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho in 1998 and has been a partner since 2005. Ms. Ho has extensive experience representing employees, consumers, and voters in class, collective, and representative actions in California and nationally.  Her cases have won hundreds of millions of dollars for hundreds of thousands of people. Ms. Ho has also been instrumental in enforcing the California Voting Rights Act in cities including Anaheim, Palmdale, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale.

Ms. Ho has been a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Law since 2018 and joined its board in 2022.  From 2019-22, she was the Employee Co-Chair of the ABA’s Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee. Ms. Ho received California Lawyer magazine’s California Lawyer of the Year Award (CLAY) in 2009 for her achievements in employment law, was named Best Lawyer’s 2014 and 2019 Lawyer of the Year for Oakland in Litigation—Labor and Employment, and is regularly recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer.  She regularly writes and speaks on wage and hour and complex litigation topics.

 

see allhide all

Education

  • J.D., Yale University
  • B.A. (cum laude), University of Washington

Bar and Court Admissions

  • California, 1994

  • U.S. District Courts: Northern and Central Districts of California

  • U.S. Court of Appeals: Ninth and Tenth Circuits

Awards

  • 2010-2016 Super Lawyer

  • 2014 Best Lawyer’s Lawyer of the Year for Oakland in Litigation—Labor and Employment

  • 2011 Top Attorney in Northern California, San Francisco Magazine

  • 2009 California Lawyer of the Year Award Winner for employment law

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • ABA Section of Labor and Employment, Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee, Plaintiff’s Co-Chair 2016-
  • ABA Section of Labor and Employment, Fair Labor Standards Legislation Committee, Midwinter Report Co-Editor in Chief
  • Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, Board Member 2006-2014, Leadership Council, 2014-
  • National Employment Lawyers Association, Executive Board 2016-
  • California Employment Lawyers Association

Prior Employment

  • Asian Law Caucus; Staff Attorney
  • ACLU Foundation National Immigrants’ Rights Project; Staff Attorney
  • Law clerk for the Honorable John C. Coughenour, Chief Judge of the Federal District Court of the Western District of Washington in Seattle, Washington

Representative Cases

  • Willner v. Manpower (N.D. Cal.) ($8.75 million settlement for over 20,000 temporary employees throughout California alleging deficient wage statements)

  • Moreno v. City of Anaheim (Orange Cnty. Super. Ct) (California Voting Rights Act settlement changing city council election system from at large to by district)

  • Vasquez v. USM (N.D. Cal.) ($1 million class settlement for janitors alleging underfunding of janitorial contracts under Labor Code section 2810)

  • Garcia v. Oracle, JCCP 4597 (Alameda Cnty. Super. Ct.) ($35 million class settlement for 1,725 employees alleging overtime misclassification)

  • Myart v. Autozone, No. 05CC03219 (Orange Cnty. Super. Ct.) (class settlement in 2011 for over 20,000 hourly employees for off-the-clock work)

  • Contreras v. Bank of America, No. CGC-07-467749 (San Francisco Cnty. Super. Ct.) ($16.65 million settlement finally approved in 2010 for over 3,000 California mortgage loan officers)

  • Chau v. Starbucks, No. GIC 836925 (San Diego Cnty. Super. Ct.) (trial counsel winning $105 million judge verdict and injunction for certified class of over 120,000 baristas who alleged that Starbucks violates California law by allowing its “agents” to share in a tip pool with baristas)

  • Mousai v. E-Loan, Inc., No. 06-01993 SI (N.D. Cal.) (co-lead counsel in $13.6 million settlement in overtime class action for mortgage salespeople approved in May 2007)

  • Lin v. Siebel Systems, Inc., No. CIV 435601 (San Mateo Cnty. Super. Ct.) (final approval of $27.5 million class action settlement granted in May 2007 in overtime case for certified class of over 800 software engineers)

  • Butler v. Countrywide, No. BC 268250 (Los Angeles Cnty. Super. Ct.) ($30 million class settlement for over 450 misclassified account executives approved in 2005) Savings and Loan Overtime Case (co-lead counsel in $900,000 class action settlement for 111 underwriters for claims of unpaid overtime and annual bonus)

  • Chinese Progressive Association v. Anna Wong, et al., Case No. A11568 (California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District) (successful counsel for appellant in appeal of fee award against non-profit community organization for bringing UCL claims on behalf of garment workers who were denied any payment of wages for hours worked)

  • Tokar v. GEICO, No. GIC 810166 (San Diego Cnty. Super. Ct.) (class of over 3,000 telephone center workers seeking overtime pay; filed May 5, 2003; final approval of $3.3 million settlement granted on July 9, 2004)

  • Cruz, et al. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, et al., No. C01-00892 CRB (N.D. Cal.) (representing putative class of WWII era braceros for return of “savings fund” wages)

  • Gentry v. Superior Court (Circuit City Stores), No. S141502 (Cal. 2007) (counsel for amici curiae in overtime case involving class action waiver in arbitration agreement)

  • In Re: Sepulveda v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Litigation, No. 2:04-cv-01003-DSF-E (9th Cir.) (counsel for amici curiae in case involving class certification in wage and hour case)

  • Sav-on Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court, 34 Cal.4th 319 (2004) (counsel for amici curiae in case involving class certification standards in California)

  • Morillion v. Royal Packing Co., 22 Cal.4th 575 (2000) (counsel for amici curiae in case involving definition of “hours worked” under California Labor Code)

  • Earley v. Superior Court, 79 Cal.App.4th 1420 (2000) (counsel for amici curiae in case involving California’s one-wage fee shifting statute for overtime wage claims)

  • Cuadra v Millan, 17 Cal. 4th 855 (1998) (writ proceeding successfully challenging DLSE’s practice of calculating back wages from date of hearing rather than date of filing of claim)

  • Bureerong v. Uvawas, 922 F. Supp. 1450 (C.D. Cal. 1996) (group action for wages and other damages for Thai sweatshop workers held in virtual “slave” sweatshop)

  • Sale v. HCC, 509 U.S. 155 (1993) (unsuccessful challenge to U.S. policy of interdicting on the high seas Haitians fleeing from Haiti and returning them to Haiti without determining whether those returned are refugees as defined under international law)

  • HCC v. Sale, 823 F. Supp. 1028 (E.D.N.Y. 1993) (successfully challenging U.S. policy of indefinite detention of Haitian refugees who tested positive for HIV)

Representative Publications

  • Contributing Editor, The Fair Labor Standards Act, 2001 Cumulative Supplement, Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.

  • Chapter Editor, Wage and Hour Laws, A State-by-State Survey, Main Volume and 2005 Supplement, ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law

  • Collective Action Basics, 10 Emp. Rts. and Emp. Policy J. 427 (2006)

  • (Dis)assembling Rights of Women Workers on the Global Assemblyline: Human Rights and Garment Industry, 31 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 383 (1996) (with Cathy Powell and Leti Volpp)

  • Worker Protection Compromised:  The Fair Standards Act Meets the Bankruptcy Code, 2 Asian Pac. Am. L.J. 38 (1994) (with Lora Jo Foo and Thomas M. Kim)

  • Litigating as Law Students:  An Inside Look at Haitian Centers Council, 103 Yale L.J. 2337 (1994) (with Victoria Clawson and Elizabeth Detweiler)

Representative Speaking Engagements