Leading national employment, whistleblower, sexual harassment, and civil rights law firm Katz Banks Kumin LLP has merged with California-based Liu Peterson-Fisher LLP, significantly expanding its national presence and its wage and hour practice.
Joining Katz Banks Kumin’s newly formed San Francisco office from Liu Peterson-Fisher are partners Jennifer (Jen) Liu and Rebecca (Becky) Peterson-Fisher, and associate Leah Kennedy. The new office also will include Katz Banks Kumin partners Avi Kumin and Alexis Ronickher and associate Rachel Green, as well as newly hired associate Bethel Habte. Liu and Ronickher will jointly serve as managing partners of the new office, with Ronickher dividing her practice between the firm’s California and D.C. offices.
The new office will be located at 150 California St., 16th Floor, in San Francisco.
“We are very excited to join forces with Liu Peterson-Fisher,” said Katz Banks Kumin Co-Founding Partner Debra S. Katz. “They are great lawyers and respected leaders in the plaintiffs’ employment bar. As a result of this merger, Katz Banks Kumin will be able to expand our footprint to California to further serve our clients in employment, whistleblower, sexual harassment, civil rights, and wage and hour cases. We also are thrilled to welcome Jen, Becky and Leah to our team of experienced attorneys focused on zealous advocacy of workplace and civil rights.”
Liu said, “Becky, Leah and I are incredibly honored to join Katz Banks Kumin. They are a world-class group of lawyers who have played a pivotal role in some of the most important employment and civil rights cases of our time. I look forward to helping lead our new San Francisco office, growing the firm’s wage and hour practice, and furthering the rest of the firm’s important work on behalf of workers.”
Ronickher added, “This expansion, including our merger with Liu Peterson-Fisher, is an important part of Katz Banks Kumin’s dedication to work on behalf of employees across the country. For years we have represented clients in California and on the West Coast, and this new office will allow us to serve even more clients in the West.”
Liu is a nationally recognized litigator in employment discrimination and wage and hour class actions. She also represents individuals in litigation and negotiation in all areas of employment law. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Liu frequently represents executives and other professionals in the technology, financial services and health care industries.
Liu was managing partner at Liu Peterson-Fisher and also founded the firm’s predecessor, The Liu Law Firm, P.C., in 2015. Previously, she was an attorney at a national employment law firm. Liu has been recognized as one of the top plaintiffs’ employment lawyers in the United States by Best Lawyers in America, Benchmark Litigation, and Lawdragon. She also has been repeatedly named one of the Top 75 Labor and Employment Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal, and she is recognized in Super Lawyers. Liu is an active member of the legal community and frequently speaks and publishes on employment law issues. She is also a board member for the Center for WorkLife Law, an advocacy and research organization that seeks to advance racial, gender, and class equity.
Liu received her J.D. from Stanford Law School and her Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She earned her Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) from Harvard University.
Peterson-Fisher litigates individual cases and class actions involving discrimination and wage and hour violations, with a focus on cases that advance social justice. Previously, she was an attorney with a Los Angeles civil rights law firm, a senior staff attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, and a trial attorney with the Brooklyn Family Defense Project (now Brooklyn Defender Services). Peterson-Fisher has been recognized as one of the top plaintiffs’ employment lawyers in the United States by Lawdragon. She has twice been named one of the Top 75 Labor and Employment Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal, and she has repeatedly been named to Super Lawyers. Peterson-Fisher is a past chair of the Alameda County Bar Association (ACBA) Labor & Employment Section Executive Committee, and currently serves on the executive committee for the ACBA’s newly formed Appellate Section. She also serves on the board of Alliance for Girls, an alliance of organizations serving girls and gender-expansive youth that works to generate community-driven systemic change.
Peterson-Fisher earned her J.D. (cum laude) from New York University School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley.
Kennedy represents plaintiffs in employment and civil rights matters. She received her J.D. in 2022 from Stanford Law School, where she was involved in disability justice, immigrant rights and worker rights causes, and founded the Racial and Disability Justice Project, a pro bono project centered on empowering Latinx families in attaining services for their children with disabilities. Kennedy earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oklahoma.
Habte joined Katz Banks Kumin in September 2023, and represents plaintiffs in employment, whistleblower, sexual harassment, and civil rights cases. Previously, she was a litigation fellow at a national employment law firm and a law fellow at a public employee union. She received her J.D. in 2021 from Northeastern University School of Law, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar and served on the staff of the Northeastern University Law Review. Habte earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh.
About Katz Banks Kumin’s Wage & Hour Practice
The attorneys at Katz Banks Kumin help workers navigate complex federal and state wage laws, as well as maximize workers’ recovery of unpaid minimum wages and overtime compensation – often leading to meaningful change in workplace policies and practices. The firm prosecutes single and multi-plaintiff cases, including high impact class actions to protect the rights of employees who have been deprived of the full wages to which they are legally entitled – such as through failure to pay the minimum wage, withholding tips, incorrectly calculating overtime, and misclassifying employees as independent contractors.
About Katz Banks Kumin, LLP
The lawyers of Katz Banks Kumin are nationally recognized leaders in the areas of whistleblower law, sexual harassment law, employment law, Title IX discrimination, civil rights and civil liberties, and wage and hour matters. They provide expert advice and representation on a wide range of whistleblower matters, including whistleblower retaliation cases and reward programs before the SEC and other federal whistleblower rewards programs. They are dogged advocates for their clients and are highly regarded by their adversaries for their tenacious representation of their clients. The firm handles cases nationwide with offices in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and San Francisco.