Hepting et al v. AT&T Corp. et al

Filing 214

Declaration of Cindy A. Cohn in Support of 213 Notice (Other) DECLARATION OF CINDY A. COHN IN SUPPORT OF ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION FOR DESIGNATION OF INTERIM CLASS COUNSEL filed byGregory Hicks, Erik Knutzen, Tash Hepting, Carolyn Jewel. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A# 2 Exhibit B# 3 Exhibit C# 4 Exhibit D# 5 Exhibit E)(Related document(s) 213 ) (Scarlett, Shana) (Filed on 6/14/2006)

EXHIBIT D

TRABER & VOORHEES Formed in September, 1991, Traber & Voorhees is a private, public interest law firm. Its predecessor firm, Litt & Stormer, was the largest, private public-interest law firm in Southern California from 1984 until its dissolution in 1991. In working with both firms, Bert Voorhees and Theresa Traber have handled significant, complex class action and impact civil rights litigation. In its first six years, Traber & Voorhees primarily litigated employment and housing discrimination cases, resulting, among other things, in three of the largest settlements against private defendants ever obtained in fair housing class actions, in Walker, et al. v. Lakewood Condo Owners Assoc., et al., Mould v. Palmdale 112, Ltd., and U.S.A. v. Plaza Mobile Estates. Since 1998, Traber & Voorhees has also litigated class actions and multi-plaintiff cases involving international human rights and wage and overtime law. In the first of these cases, Traber & Voorhees served as class counsel in Pedroza v. Fashion 21, Inc., charging a retail clothing chain with discriminating against its non-KoreanAmerican employees and with failing to pay full overtime wages, resulting in a settlement of $1,000,000, and important changes in the company's employment policies. Traber & Voorhees also acted as class counsel in Otera v. Rent-A-Center (L.A. Superior Court class action settlement of $3 million in overtime case brought on behalf of employees who were misclassified as exempt), E.E.O.C. v. McKesson Water Product Company (federal court settlement on behalf of plaintiff-intervenor class, resulting in a settlement in excess of $1.6 million and substantial training and policy changes), and Bullock v. Automobile Club of Southern California (a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action in federal district court which resolved in a multi-million dollar settlement). In recent years, Traber & Voorhees has continued to act as class counsel in a number of large wage and overtime class actions cases, including Vaca v. Cintas Corp., resulting in a settlement of $10,000,000. Traber & Voorhees was also one of several class counsel in Flores v. Albertson's, Inc., a wage and hour class action brought on behalf of supermarket janitors working in major supermarkets throughout California, which settled in 2004 for more than $22 million. In an international human rights case, Larry Bowoto, et al. v. Chevron Corporation, currently pending in federal court, Traber & Voorhees has joined other human rights lawyers in charging Chevron with violating international human rights law in killing and torturing Nigerians in conjunction with oil production in the Niger Delta. Traber & Voorhees is also co-counsel in Veliz v. Cintas Corporation, which includes related actions in federal court and before an arbitrator asserting overtime claims under the FLSA and state wage and hour laws on behalf of

delivery drivers throughout the country on a class-wide and collective basis collective action. In addition to the class actions in which they have served as counsel, Mr. Voorhees and Ms. Traber have been plaintiff's counsel in a number of significant employment discrimination cases, including: LaPay, et al. v. City of Los Angeles, et al., and Grobeson v. City of Los Angeles, both of which cases charged LAPD officers with discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, the first of which resulted in what was then the largest monetary resolution of a sexual orientation case ever obtained against a law enforcement agency and the latter of which resulted in a settlement requiring L.A. to adopt administrative regulations protecting gay and lesbian employees; EEOC [Estrada] v. Farmer Brothers, 31 F.3d 616 (9th Cir. 1994), an individual gender discrimination trial which resulted in an award of damages, fees and costs in excess of $2,000,000; Spink v. Lockheed, et al., 60 F.3d 616 (9th Cir. 1995), reversed and remanded in Lockheed Corp. v. Spink, 116 S.Ct. 1783 (1996), which charged Lockheed with age discrimination, ERISA violations, and breaching the company's fiduciary duties in running its pension plan; and Zuchegna v. Librascope Corp., a gender and age discrimination case brought by a 61-year-old female inspector, which resulted in a mid-trial settlement of $1,400,000. In 1997, the NAACP honored Mr. Voorhees for his work in opposing a gang injunction in the city of Pasadena. In 2001, the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation honored Ms. Traber and her co-counsel as finalists for Public Interest Trial Lawyers of the Year for their work in Doe v. Radovan Karadzic, which resulted in a verdict of more than $4.5 billion for 21 Muslim families whose members were murdered, tortured, raped and otherwise brutalized as a part of Serbian "ethnic cleansing." Ms. Traber was one of two lead trial counsel in this case. Founding partner Bert Voorhees graduated Order of the Coif from UCLA Law School in 1988, and co-founding partner Theresa M. Traber received her Juris Doctor degree from Northeastern University in 1984. For the last three years, Ms. Traber has been recognized as one of Southern California's Super Lawyers and one of the top 50 female lawyers in Southern California by Los Angeles Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine. Associate Vanessa Eisemann graduated from University of Southern California Law School in 2000. Before joining Traber & Voorhees in 2003, Ms. Eisemann clerked for the Honorable Gary L. Taylor in the Central District of California, and was an associate with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, conducting commercial litigation and employment defense litigation. Ms. Eisemann was named as a "Rising Star" in 2005 and 2006 in Super Lawyers Magazine. Associate Laura Faer, who will join Traber & Voorhees in July 2006, graduated from

Columbia University School of Law in 2003 and subsequently clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Since her clerkship, Ms. Faer has worked as a Skadden Law Fellow for the Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles, litigating cases of disability and status-related discrimination in educational settings.