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 & Fitch, Guess?, 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.)
