RUDY EXELROD ZIEFF & LOWE - Key Persons
Chaya Mandelbaum is a Partner at Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP where he represents employees in individual and class action litigation and negotiations across the spectrum of employment law. He has extensive experience in wage and hour, discrimination, retaliation, harassment and leave of absence matters.
Chaya recently served as Chair of the California Fair Employment and Housing Council. He was appointed and re-appointed to the position by former California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., and both appointments were confirmed by the California Senate. The Council promotes regulations related to employment and housing discrimination and holds hearings on civil rights issues facing the state.
Before joining REZL, Chaya was a Senior Litigation Counsel at Sanford Heisler. While there, he represented employees in class actions involving wage and hour, discrimination and other civil rights claims.
Chaya previously served as a Trial Attorney in the Office of the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor, where he successfully represented the Secretary of Labor in significant enforcement actions, including a multi-million dollar wage and penalty recovery based on violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. He was successful in both jury and bench trials during his tenure.
Prior to his service at the Department of Labor, Chaya worked in the Labor and Employment Practice Group at Morgan Lewis & Bockius, where he represented employers in matters involving wage and hour, employment discrimination and labor relations.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Co - Editor of the Practising Law Institute
Erin Pulaski has been consistently recognized for her advocacy on behalf of employees and executives. From 2015 to 2023, she was named one of the Top Women Attorneys in Northern California by San Francisco Magazine and recognized as a Super Lawyers "Rising Star" (a distinction given to no more than 2.5% of lawyers in the state). In 2021, she was recognized by the Daily Journal as among the Top 40 Under 40 attorneys in California.
Erin represents employees and executives in all aspects of employment litigation, including wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wage and hour, and unpaid commission claims. She represents clients in both state and federal court, in arbitration, and through trial and appeals. She also handles confidential prelitigation negotiations on behalf of clients.
Erin is Co-Editor of the Practising Law Institute's new California employment law treatise, to be published in 2022. She also serves as a Contributing Editor of the Rutter Group's California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation.
Erin has been an active member of numerous successful trial and arbitration teams, including several individual employment cases that resulted in seven-figure judgments for our clients.
Prior to joining Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, Erin worked as an attorney at a Los Angeles employment and civil rights firm. She also served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
"Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Jessica Spierer joined Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff, and Lowe LLP in 2022, prepared to fight for employees' rights. Jessica obtained her legal degree from the University of California Berkeley School of Law, graduating with a Public Interest and Social Justice Certificate. As an editor for both the California Law Review and Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Jessica passionately engaged in legal scholarship. Committed to cultivating a sustainable network of future plaintiff-side attorneys, Jessica co-founded the university's first Plaintiffs' Law Association.
Since the inception of her career, Jessica has continuously advocated for workers' rights, including supporting individual workers facing harassment, discrimination and wage and hour issues, as well as employees in larger class action suits. Most recently, she represented workers as a law clerk at Outten & Golden LLP, Nichols Kaster LLP, and Legal Aid at Work. As a member of Legal Aid's Gender Equity and LGBTQ Rights group, Jessica helped create a "toolkit" for Trans and Non-Binary employees, providing a comprehensive and accessible resource for employees to understand their rights.
Jessica graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with a bachelor's degree in English Literature, Anthropology, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
John Mullan joined Rudy Exelrod Zieff & Lowe in 2002, and currently leads the class action practice group. He has a deep knowledge of state and federal employment laws, which protect workers from employers who do not provide proper compensation. John has successfully recovered tens of millions of dollars in unpaid wages for his clients from some of the largest employers in California. These class action lawsuits include allegations of unpaid wages, unpaid overtime wages, violations of meal and rest breaks, and gender discrimination. John frequently co-counsels large class action cases with other firms.
John is also an experienced litigator, representing individuals with employment law claims such as wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, and whistleblower retaliation. He represents many high profile clients, such as Tinder founder Whitney Wolfe in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the company.
John has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer since 2013, and was previously recognized as a "Rising Star for Northern California" by Super Lawyers. He is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he served as an executive editor of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law.
In addition to client advocacy, John speaks extensively on employment law issues. He has spoken for the Labor and Employment Section of the State Bar of California, Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), the Rutter Group, the Practicing Law Institute (PLI), and the Employment Law Center. John also writes employment law articles and treatises, including sections of the Fair Labor Standards Act treatise published by the American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law, and he serves as Chapter Editor for The Rutter Group's Employment Litigation California Practice Guide.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Bar Association of San Francisco
Mark Rudy is one of the founding partners of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe and now serves as a mediator in employment and business-related matters. Since July 1988, he has mediated approximately 5,000 matters with a high degree of success.
Mark has been named as one of the top 500 judges/mediators in America by Lawdragon, listed in Who's Who Legal under Mediation in 2019-2023, Chambers rated 2019-2023, and in Marquis Who's Who, rated a top 10 mediator by the San Francisco Recorder, one of the top 100 Northern California SuperLawyers for 13 consecutive years, ranked as one of the top 10 SuperLawyers in Northern California in September 2007 and in September 2010, one of the best mediators in the State of California for every year which ratings have been published by the Daily Journal, and one of the top five plaintiff employment lawyers in Northern California, San Francisco Recorder, Summer 2004, and awarded 2013 Mediator of the Year by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association.
Mark has handled, as lead counsel through trial, approximately 30 court and jury matters involving wrongful termination and/or employment discrimination.
Mark has been nominated to Best Lawyers in America, Woodward/White for over 25 years. He is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the International Academy of Mediators.
Mark is a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and served as Chair of the Labor and Employment Section (1990-1992). He is also a member of the State Bar of California and served as Executive Committee Member of the Labor and Employment Law Section (1990-1995). He is a former Board Member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (1989-1992).
Mark has authored and co-authored numerous publications and has spoken and written widely on employment law, class action, and alternative dispute resolution issues.
Michelle Lee joined the firm in 2014 to represent workers in both individual and class action cases, enforcing state and federal laws which protect workers who have been treated unfairly by their employers. Michelle specializes in a variety of employment law issues including wage theft, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, sexual assault, and trade secrets matters. Throughout her career, Michelle has successfully recovered millions of dollars in damages for her clients from some of the largest employers in California.
Michelle has tried complex cases in court and arbitration, including serving as second chair on the trial team in the landmark sex discrimination case Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins that highlighted the barriers facing women in venture capital and tech industries. She has also tried cases involving breach of contract, wrongful termination, and unpaid equity claims.
Michelle has been recognized as one of the Top Women Attorneys in Northern California by San Francisco Magazine, a Super Lawyer, and one of Lawdragon's 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers in the United States. She is a frequent panelist and speaker about employment law issues, as well as her passion for combating bias and fostering diversity in the workplace. Michelle also serves on the Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions, the group that writes the Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions. She was appointed to the Committee by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, along with a select group of judges and elite trial lawyers.
Before joining Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, Michelle was an associate at a prominent national litigation firm, where she handled a wide array of complex cases ranging from intellectual property disputes to securities lawsuits. Michelle also served as a law clerk for the Honorable William Alsup of the Northern District of California and as a law clerk at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Georgia. Michelle graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School where she was an editor for the Michigan Journal of Law Reform. Michelle received her undergraduate degree in biology from Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Lawyers Association, Board Member
Steve Zieff is a Retired Partner with the law firm of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP, where he has practiced from 1986 to 2023. After spending his formative years as a public interest lawyer, he first associated with Mark Rudy in 1986, and later they co-founded the partnership in 1989. Steve established the firm's wage and hour practice and has been instrumental in pioneering the prosecution of wage and hour class actions in state and federal courts. He has served as lead counsel in numerous wage and hour class actions, achieving multimillion dollar resolutions in numerous cases. Steve first developed the use of the wage and hour class action to enforce the right to overtime pay when he filed and successfully prosecuted Breaux v. Agency Rent-A-Car in the early 1990s, which was the first case to enforce California overtime laws by the use of the class action device. In 2001, Steve obtained the largest overtime judgment in United States legal history in the landmark case Bell v. Farmers Insurance Exchange. In the Bell case, he represented over 2400 employees, eventually recovering over $200 million. Steve's work directly led to what became one of the hottest and most prolific areas of employment law - wage and hour class actions.
Besides handling wage and hour cases, Steve also regularly represented individuals in discrimination and wrongful discharge matters. He frequently handled cases relating to severance and termination of employment, as well as matters involving sexual harassment and discrimination claims.
Steve has authored articles on a variety of employment and litigation related subjects, and has lectured on employment matters at meetings, conferences and MCLE programs sponsored by the Rutter Group - California Judge's Association, the California Employment Lawyers Association, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the American Trial Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association, the California State Bar, and California Continuing Education of the Bar. He has been honored by having been named as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Law, an honorary society. Mr. Zieff is a recipient of the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year ("CLAY"), was named as one of the "Top 100" Most Influential Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal in 2002, and has been frequently listed in the Top 100 Lawyers in Northern California. Mr. Zieff has consistently been listed in the Best Lawyers in America and as a Superlawyer. In 2015, Mr. Zieff was honored by being named Best Lawyers' "Lawyer of the Year" in San Francisco for San Francisco Litigation - Labor and Employment. Steve also spends a great deal of time on pro bono matters, including memberships on several public interest boards and writing position pieces for the National Employment Lawyers Association advocating for the rights of American workers.
Job Titles:
- Center for Social Justice - Advisory Council Member
Job Titles:
- Represented Tinder Founder
Will McElhinny joined Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe in the summer of 2015 following his clerkship for the Honorable William Alsup in the Northern District of California. Will has experience litigating cases in both federal and state courts, as well as in the arbitration setting. He represents clients in significant matters involving all aspects of employment litigation, including wage and hour, wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, breach of contract, and executive compensation matters. During law school, Will worked on behalf of the Michigan Innocence Clinic representing innocent defendants in criminal appeals and re-trials. Prior to becoming an attorney, Will worked as a paralegal at the Mississippi Center for Justice, a public interest law firm advancing racial and economic justice in Mississippi, as well as at the anti-genocide organization, Enough Project in Washington, D.C.