RBGG’s Gay Grunfeld has been named to the Daily Journal’s list of Top Women Lawyers in California for 2020, after being named to the DJ’s Top 100 list earlier in the year. Gay has now received this distinction for the last eight years (2013 to 2020), as well as for 2011. She has over 25 years of experience practicing before trial and appellate courts at both the state and federal levels, and has been repeatedly named one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal. Gay maintains an active and diverse litigation practice, successfully representing clients in a variety of employment, malpractice, attorneys’ fees, trade secrets and commercial disputes.
According to the Daily Journal, “Well known for challenging the state prisons department’s treatment of prisoners and parolees with disabilities, Grunfeld also doesn’t waiver in litigating for employee rights.” The DJ cites Grunfeld’s work for plaintiffs in Olabi v. Neutron Holdings, Inc. dba Lime where she and co-counsel filed an action in the San Francisco Superior Court under California’s Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) against Lime, a startup that rents dockless motorized scooters throughout the United States. Lime classifies all of its “Juicers”–who pickup scooters off the street in the evening, charge them at their homes overnight, and redistribute them in the morning and without whom Lime could not operate—as independent contractors. Plaintiff alleges that under California law, including the California Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, all Juicers are actually employees.
According to Grunfeld, “We can’t tolerate a system where the poorest people are forced to work for sub-minimum wage in these really unpleasant and difficult jobs.”