“We fight for justice with honor. Whether working with a client, negotiating with an adversary, or collaborating with a colleague, the principles of integrity, decency, and kindness guide us.”

About 

JAHAN C. SAGAFI is the partner-in-charge of the firm’s San Francisco office, where he represents workers in employment class actions challenging discrimination, wage and hour abuses, Fair Credit Reporting Act violations, and other types of exploitation of workers.  He has won a jury trial for a nationwide class of technical support workers, an en banc appeal in the Ninth Circuit, settlements protecting software engineers from gender and race discrimination and older applicants to accounting jobs, and many other settlements to recover backpay for overtime compensation, meal and rest breaks, vacation benefits, discriminatory pay and promotion gaps, and more.  

Mr. Sagafi has represented a wide array of workers throughout the country, including HVAC service technicians, corporate instructors, financial advisers and trainees, security officers temp staffing workers, cashiers, call center customer service representatives, counselors, drivers, and many others. 

During his career, he has recovered well over $100 million for workers, asserting claims against transportation companies (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Hertz, GlobalTranz), tech companies (e.g., AT&T, IBM, Computer Sciences Corp.), banks (e.g., Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney), retailers (e.g., Walmart, Target, Abercrombie & FitchGuess?, Raley’s) healthcare companies (e.g., Permanente, Premera Blue Cross), an accounting firm (PwC), insurance companies (e.g., Travelers, Farmers), restaurants, and more.

In addition to his trial court work, Mr. Sagafi represents plaintiffs in appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit, and other courts, addressing issues such as workers’ rights, arbitration agreements, class certification, standing, unfair and deceptive practices under California’s Unfair Competition Law, and FDA preemption.  He has also volunteered to write amicus briefs in the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Sagafi is also active in the community, serving on several boards, including national nonprofit Alliance for Justice’s (AFJ) board and the San Francisco American Constitution Society (ACS) Bay Area chapter’s Board of Advisors. In the past, he has served as a Governor of the board of the nonprofit Public Advocates, a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) Judicial Evaluations Committee, a BASF attorney fee disputes arbitrator, Vice Chair of the board of the ACLU of Northern California (and Chair of Legal Committee), chair of the Board of the San Francisco ACS chapter, and as an Executive Committee member of the California Bar Litigation Section.  Additionally, Mr. Sagafi has served as an organizer of ABA Labor & Employment Law Section conferences. 

Mr. Sagafi has been recognized by numerous legal and non-profit organizations.  He has received the Community Justice Award from Centro Legal De La Raza, and has been repeatedly recognized as a California Super Lawyer, one of the Top 100 lawyers in all fields in Northern California (2015-21), one of the Daily Journal’s “Top 75 Labor and Employment Lawyers” in California (2015-20), and one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers in the United States (2018-20).

Prior to joining Outten & Golden, he was a partner at Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, and clerked for the Honorable William W Schwarzer of the Northern District of California.  Mr. Sagafi graduated from Harvard College, magna cum laude, and received his J.D. Harvard Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and president of the Board of Student Advisers.

(*Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.)

Bar Admission and Professional Activity

  • Mr. Sagafi is admitted to practice law only in California.
  • Mr. Sagafi is admitted to the following federal courts: The United States District Courts for the Northern District of California, the Eastern District of California, the Central District of California; and the Southern District of New York; the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Ninth Circuit; and the Eleventh Circuit.
  • Selected as a Attorney Representative for the Northern District of California to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council (2019, 2020-2022)
  • Civil Local Rules Attorney Advisory Committee for the Northern District of California (2020-2022)
  • Legal Aid at Work
    • Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Development Committee (2019-present)
  • People’s Parity Project
    • Board of Advisors (2019-present)
  • Berkley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law (2019-present)
  • American Constitution Society: Bay Area Lawyer Chapter
    • Member of the Executive Board (2005-2011)
    • Chair of the Executive Board (2009-2011)
    • Member of the Advisory Board (2014-present)
  • American Association for Justice
    • Co-Chair of the Wage and Hour Litigation Group (2016-present)
  • Alliance for Justice
    • Board of Directors (2014-2019)
  • Public Advocates Inc.
    • Board of Governors (2012-2015)
  • American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
    • Board of Directors (2006-2011)
    • Chair of the Legal Committee (2010-2011)
    • Vice Chair of the Board (2010-2011)
    • Executive Committee (2009-2011)
  • American Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Section
  • State Bar of California
    • Litigation Section Executive Committee Member (2006-2007)
    • CACI Civil Jury Instructions Committee (2004-2007)
    • Administration of Justice Committee (2004-2007)
  • National Employment Lawyers Association
  • Consumer Attorneys of California
  • Bar Association of San Francisco
    • Judicial Evaluations Committee (2013-2015)
    • Volunteer Attorney Fee Dispute Arbitrator (2009-2015)
  • California Employment Lawyers Association

Video & Podcasts

May 13, 2023

CPR CEO & President Allen Waxman interviews Employment Disputes Committee Chair Aaron Warshaw of Ogletree and Jahan Sagafi of Outten & Golden LLP on CPR’s Mass Claims Protocol. The Protocol can be found here: https://www.cpradr.org/resource-cente…

Play Video
May 17, 2012

Public Advocates Board of Governors member Jahan Sagafi discussed the future of advocacy at the 2012 Voices of Conscience Celebration

Play Video
October 26, 2021

Plaintiff-side class action attorneys, Jahan Sagafi and Kelly Dermody, join Belinda Reed Shannon and Barbara Johnson to discuss systemic discrimination. Tune in to learn more about what systemic discrimination is, what these attorney’s look for when taking on a case, and explore the industries that are more vulnerable to claims of systemic discrimination.

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Speaking Engagements

2023

  • Moderator: “Views from the Defense Bar,” National Employment Lawyers Association, 2023 Spring Seminar, San Diego, CA

2019

  • Speaker: “Trying Wage & Hour Cases To Juries,” NELA 2019 Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA

 

2017

  • Panelist: “Use and Admissibility of Electronically Stored Information,” ABA Section of Labor & Employment, Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference, Washington, DC
  • Speaker: “An Uncertain Future: The 21st Century Workforce in California,” Bloomberg Law San Francisco Leadership Exchange, San Francisco, CA
  • Speaker: “Pay Audits, Pay Transparency, and the Public Disclosure of Pay Data,” American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law, National Conference on Equal Employment Opportunity Law, New Orleans, LA

 

2016

  • Speaker: “Trends in Class Action Employment Litigation,” Practising Law Institute, Cutting-Edge Employment Law Issues 2016: The California Difference, San Francisco, CA
  • Panelist: “Resolving Wage & Hour Mass Action: The Ever-Changing Landscape,” JAMS, San Francisco, CA
  • Speaker: “Procedural Barriers to Discrimination Cases,” UC Hastings Law Journal Spring Symposium, The Status of Antidiscrimination Law and Litigation in the United States, San Francisco, CA
  • Speaker: “Brainstorming Best Practices in Pay Equity,” American Bar Association, Section of Labor & Employment, National Conference on Equal Employment Opportunity Law, Austin, TX

 

2014

  • Speaker: “The Use of Experts in Title VII Cases,” ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law, 8th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference, Los Angeles, CA
  • Speaker: “Key Wage and Hour Developments,” Practising Law Institute, California Employment Law Update 2014, San Francisco, CA
  • Speaker: “Analyzing Damages in Wage and Hour Cases,” American Association for Justice, Employment Rights Section and Wage & Hour Litigation Group, Baltimore, MD

 

Blogs & Publications

FTC Seeks to Help Workers by Banning Noncompete Restrictions

On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule that could dramatically improve the ability of workers across the United States to move freely between jobs and negotiate higher pay, by proposing a rule to prohibit employers from entering into non-compete agreements with their workers.

White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch

A new documentary on Netflix called White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch explores A&F’s pop culture reign and how it thrived on exclusion. In the documentary, O&G partner Jahan Sagafi discusses his work prosecuting the nationwide race and gender discrimination class action against this "All-American" fashion company that was sued for behaving in such an unamerican way.

When the Boss is “Hardcore,” Workers Respond with Confidence

As many tech companies faced the tough decision to lay off thousands of workers last fall, Elon Musk’s chaotic and even antagonistic approach to his newly acquired Twitter workforce made those layoffs...

Class-action settlements in an ever-more-crowded field

Jahan Sagafi and Tara Mohseni, Plaintiff, 2017 February

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Spotting FLSA & California overtime exemption violations

Jahan C. Sagafi, co-authored with Tanisha Shafer, Plaintiff Magazine, January 2016

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Sagafi Considers Limited Scope Of Integrity Staffing, Questions Likelihood Of Collective Bargaining For Private Sector Workers

Sagafi Considers Limited Scope of Integrity Staffing Questions Likelihood of Collective Bargaining for Private Sector Workers. Jahan C. Sagafi interviewed by Katrina E. Klenner. Bloomberg BNA, December 31, 2014.

 

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Class Actions: A Path Through The Darkness

Employment lawyers Jahan C. Sagafi and Jennifer L. Liu, Plaintiff Magazine, January 2014. New directions for class-action lawyers in the era of a conservative-dominated Supreme Court.

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Survey of the State, Class Action Law – 2014-15; A Report of the State Laws Subcommittee of the Class Actions and Derivative Suits Committee

Jahan C. Sagafi, Coordinating Editor, American Bar Association, Section of Litigation

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Ten things every trial lawyer must know about appeals

Jahan Sagafi and Richard B. Rosenthal, Plaintiff, 2011 December

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Awards & Recognition

  • 2020 – 2024: Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for work in Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
  • 20152021: Northern California Super Lawyers Top 100
  • 2023: Super Lawyers – Super Lawyer
  • 2019-2020: Legal 500 United States Recommended Labor and Employment Lawyer
  • 2015-2020: Top 75 Labor and Employment Lawyers, Daily Journal, Northern California
  • 2018-2021: Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers
  • 2023: Lawdragon 500 Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyer
  • 2015: Leading Labor & Employment Attorney, Daily Journal, Northern California
  • 2014-2021: Northern California Super Lawyers®
  • 2009-2011: Northern California Rising Stars®
  • 2010: Community Justice Award, Centro Legal De La Raza
  • 2011: “Top 20 Under 40” Lawyer, Daily Journal, California

 

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