About Us

Everybody needs a great lawyer to take care of them sometimes. Gallo LLP cares deeply about its clients. We serve businesses, executives, and consumers alike, making winning arguments privately and in state and federal courts. Our results speak for themselves. See our awards and testimonials below. Our partners' lifetime winning percentage in cases tried to verdict exceeds 87% and our plaintiffs' recoveries exceed $100 million.

How can we serve you?

(The results of these cases depended upon their unique facts and the law applicable to them. These outcomes do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction of the outcome of any other matter or matters. They do, however, reflect something about our judgment as to when to go to trial, instead of settling, and our ability to achieve the anticipated result when we do go to trial.)

This website constitutes a "Communication" within the meaning of California Rule of Professional Conduct 1-400, in that it is a "message or offer made by or on behalf of a member [of the California State Bar] concerning the availability for professional employment of a member or a law firm directed to any former, present, or prospective client." See our website Notices, Terms, and Conditions for additional information.

Our Team

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Ray E. Gallo
Ray E. Gallo
Senior Partner
Ray E. Gallo
Northern California
415.257.8800 x11
415.257.8844
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Ray E. Gallo
Senior Partner
Dominic Valerian
Dominic Valerian
Partner
Dominic Valerian
Northern California
510-567-4632
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Dominic Valerian
Partner
Mark Moore
Mark Moore
Of Counsel
Mark Moore
Los Angeles
415.257.8800x74
415.257.8844
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Mark Moore
Of Counsel
Marc van Anda
Marc van Anda
Paralegal
Marc van Anda
Northern California
415.257.8800x17
415.257.8844
View Full Bio
Marc van Anda
Paralegal

Practice Areas

Class and Mass Actions and Corporate Fraud

Over the past ten years, class and mass actions for consumers, employees, and investors have become the heart of our practice. We think businesses should compete fairly, and have no sympathy for liars. In our class action practice, we make corporate America tell the truth a little more often, comply with wage and hour laws, respect people’s privacy rights, and deliver what people paid for.

We offer extensive experience and a history of success in complex business litigation. Our clients have ranged from entrepreneurial individuals and businesses to Fortune 1000 companies and their "Chief" level executives. Most have been middle-market businesses seeking a great relationship with a highly skilled and effective lawyer—someone who can understand and empathize with their problems and deliver smart solutions. Our clients are repeat customers because we provide consistently excellent results and service. Focused on our clients’ best interests, not ours, we pursue solutions—not litigation. Because of the way we do business, our clients often become friends.

We provide general counseling services to select clients. Ray Gallo's ability to negotiate win-win deals, general business savvy, and success as a trial lawyer combine to make him an excellent general counselor to any business. As litigators, we know how deals go bad. As negotiators, we create deals that maximize opportunities for successful business relationships while balancing the risks of future litigation and liability. Tracy Tormey, a former AmLaw100 corporate department partner, offers transactional skills informed not only by big law experience, but also by years of in-house experience managing employment, corporate governance, contract, insurance, and other matters for a $200 million publicly traded company.

Current Cases

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Aguilar v. Walgreens

Gallo LLP represents more than 80 Walgreens store managers who were improperly denied overtime and meal breaks. Walgreens paid them a salary, but they spent more than half their time doing hourly-type work. Under California law, that means Walgreens was required to treat them as hourly, and pay them overtime, etc. Based on Walgreens' statements to a federal judge, there are 930 class members, so the average claim may be worth $207,000 --- enough to change the life of a Walgreens Store Manager. If you worked as a Walgreens Store Manager in California at any time in the last six years, learn more. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones.

Hodges v. Comcast, Alameda County Superior Court Case No. RG18893764

Comcast has been tracking and saving its customers viewing habits, for use in targeted advertising, in a manner that (allegedly) violates the federal Cable Act and California Invasion of Privacy Act. In this class action, we seek injunctive relief and damages for all affected California consumers. Click the URL below to join if you live in California or if you live in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Rhode Island and opted-out of Comcast's arbitration cause (or recently activated your Comcast TV service and want to opt-out).

Results

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Kirby v. Excelsior I, Inc.

Gallo LLP represented owners who had financed a vehicle purchase with Excelsior (Car Now Acceptance Corporation). Excelsior had repossessed and then resold their vehicles without notification required by South Carolina law and did not give owners an accounting and payment of any surplus that resulted from the sale of their vehicle. The South Carolina Court of Common Pleas approved a class settlement of $2M in late 2019.

Matera v. Google

A FABULOUS RESULT! Plaintiffs (non-gmail users) sued Google seeking an injunction requiring Google to stop intercepting and processing emails to GMail accounts for advertising purposes. That injunction was entered in February 2018. GOOGLE HAS CHANGED ITS ARCHITECTURE AND STOPPED INTERCEPTING AND PROCESSING EMAILS FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSES.

Garcia v. Vivint

Plaintiffs sued solar panel seller Vivint for misleading sales practices---lying about whether homeowners enjoying California's low-income subsidized electricity rates (CARE) would save money by signing up with Vivint---and for selling Spanish speaking clients in Spanish but then providing them with an English agreement to sign. Plaintiffs recovered individual damages, the removal of the Vivint systems from their homes, and an injunction requiring Vivint to provide consumers with a contract in the same language as the sales pitch. We believe Vivint has injured numerous Californians who have CARE electricity rates by falsely promising them savings and signing them to 20 year contracts.

Vasquez v. California School of Culinary Arts

In Vasquez v. CSCA, Gallo LLP represented 1,400 individual victims alleging fraud by the California School of Culinary Arts and its parent company Career Education Corporation. A few Gallo LLP clients initially recovered a total of two million dollars in statutory settlement offers by CECO. Those who held out as advised ultimately recovered more. Read about our work and this settlement in The Atlantic.

Corley v. Google, Inc., Case No. 5:16-cv-00473

Gallo LLP represented Google Apps for Education users against Google for allegedly illegally reading user account emails. These cases settled confidentially, but you can see our client reviews at https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/94901-ca-ray-gallo-291467.html#client_reviews

Tsyn v. Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC

Gallo LLP represented Wells Fargo Financial Advisors for their employer's California and federal wage and hour violations. They were not paid overtime, had unlawful deductions taken from pay, did not receive reimbursements for business expenses, and were not paid commissions on a timely basis. The federal court approved a class settlement of $9.5M in late 2018.

Amador v. California Culinary Academy

In Amador v. California Culinary Academy, Gallo LLP recovered $40 Million from parent company Career Education Corporation based on allegations that students were misled to believe they would become chefs and earn chef wages, and based on allegedly misleading job placement rates that included jobs that were readily available without a culinary degree, and that paid wages so low students could not hope to live and make their student loan payments.

Bottoni v. Sallie Mae

In Bottoni v. Sallie Mae, Gallo LLP successfully removed an estimated $76 million in "collection charges" from the student loan obligations of approximately 40,000 Californians.

Callan v. Google, Santa Clara County Superior Court Case No. 18CV324895

In Callan v. Google, Gallo LLP represented 50 non-Gmail users seeking damages from Google for alleged violations of state laws requiring both sides consent to intercept electronic communications (email). California law (CIPA) provides $5,000 in statutory damages per violation.Click the link below to see if you qualify. We had obtained an injunction against Google in Matera v. Google, preventing Google from intercepting and processing emails to @Gmail addresses for advertising purposes. See www.gmailsettlement.com. This matter was privately resolved to the satisfaction of the parties.

Uber RSU Claims

Gallo represented roughly 350 current and former Uber engineers and executives who received stock for their Restricted Stock Units at the May 9, 2019 IPO paid excessive state and federal income taxes. The shares were supposed to be delivered 6 months after the IPO (the same day the lock-up expired). Instead Uber accelerated he settlement date to the IPO date. So, RSU shareholders received shares worth $45 each for tax purposes (even though they couldn't sell and get paid until the lock-up period expired 6 months later). If Uber had delivered the shares on November 9, 2019 (like it was supposed to), when they were worth just $27/share, employees would have been taxed on that much lower value. Read a more detailed explanation (or see Ray discuss it on video) on our website at https://uberrsuclaims.gallo.law?ml=150452054 or read about it on Medium (here's a freelink) at https://medium.com/swlh/how-uber-increased-employees-income-tax-liability-f7aa5eba0068?source=friends_link&sk=190f02a69191f4822c226aa2a11f0a90. We currently represent more than 250 current and former Uber professionals asserting these claims. This case was resolved to the satisfaction of the parties.

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Leverage: A Proven Alternative to Class Cert
A Proven Alternative to Class Cert

Gallo LLP’s pioneering development of software to automate and facilitate smaller-claim mass actions has made justice economically possible where it wasn’t before. Using LeverageTM mass action software, the firm successfully has prosecuted more than 1,000 cases for clients whose claims previously were impossible to vindicate. Leverage is available to well-qualified lawyers through affiliate Gallo Digital (leverage.law) or through joint ventures with Gallo LLP.

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court may not care whether legal wrongs have practical remedies. But we do.

Testimonials

Articles & Resources

A new aggregate litigation model emerges—technology- driven mass actions California Litigation | Ray E. Gallo

Today’s technology automates client screening, interviewing, signing, and communications, among other things, enabling the cost-effective mass litigation of smaller cases than ever before.

Read More

In class actions, heated battles can result when attorneys communicate with members of a putative (yet to be certified) class. Communications during the notice period – after the class has received notice of the proposed class settlement but before the opt-out/claims period ends – are particularly sensitive.

DIFFERENT INTERESTS
Three different groups of lawyers may want to communicate with putative class members during the notice period: defense counsel, competing plaintiffs counsel, and provisionally appointed class counsel…

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The hyper-scrutiny of the entertainment world has grown increasingly common in the world of board rooms and corporate executives.

Top talents in the business and entertainment worlds have recently suffered the consequences of real and/or perceived moral and ethical transgressions. The examples of Boeing’s Harry Stonecipher (consensual love affair is- sues) and fashion icon Kate Moss (substance abuse issues) show that business must confront and respond to a range of controversial personal conduct by its stars…

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Today many workers increasingly define themselves by what they do, and they are spending more and more time at they office. Couple that with the advent of email, cell phones, BlackBerrys, and pagers, and it seems that many of today’s workers are practically never “off the clock”.

Workplace romances have thus emerged as a hot issue in privacy law, and the courts are increasingly being called on to determine the extent to which employers can regulate the private sexual lives of their employees. The question is complex, and with relationships and careers on the line, the stakes are often high…

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Boards have proven more willing to sack underperforming CEOs lately, but before taking this ultimate step, directors must ask themselves a few questions. What does our CEO’s contract actually say about dismissal? Can we truly find better leadership than we have now? How can we craft a new CEO agreement to avoid the same problems (and assure better results)?

Suddenly, it seems like open season on high-profile CEOs. Hank Greenberg at AIG . . . Michael Eisner at Disney… Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard… Harry Stonecipher at Boeing. Others, too, have been fired by their boards for reasons ranging from regulatory investigations to poor performance to sex with a co-worker…

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If you have been reluctant to address the need for a written employment agreement, that may be because you’re a decent, honest, hardworking person who deals in good faith and only wants to deal with similar people. Perhaps you’re happy having a handshake deal with someone you trust. Or perhaps you have no confidence in your ability to handle the process, and so you avoid it.

Good leaders are trustworthy, and often are trusting in nature. They deal in good faith. They give people the benefit of the doubt until experience teaches them that a particular person is not to be trusted, or until experience makes them cynical. And then, as they should, they lament their cynicism…

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Press

01 Feb 2016
UC-Berkeley students sue Google, alleging their emails were illegally scanned
Washington Post | Emma Brown
31 Jan 2016
UC Berkeley students file lawsuit against Google alleging illegal scanning of emails
The Daily Californian | Michelle Leung
27 Jan 2016
Google accused of illegally scanning SDSU email content
The Daily Aztec | Jamie Ballard
01 Sep 2015
Legal Rebels
ABA Journal
14 Jul 2015
The Story of Leverage
CodeX/Legaltech
04 Mar 2015
The Law Firm of the Future
CodeX: The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics
08 dec 2014
Innovators: Ray Gallo, Gallo LLP
The Recorder
20 nov 2014
Can David Still Sue Goliath?
The Atlantic | Micheal Zuckerman
11 jul 2013
Sallie Mae Agrees To Cut $76M From Loans Over Default Fees
Law360.com
oct 2011
Learning the Hard Way: For-Profit Colleges Pay Dearly for their Students Discontent
California Lawyer
04 sep 2011
Culinary School Grads Claim they were Ripped Off
Sacramento Bee
03 may 2011
California Culinary Academy: SF Weekly Exposé Spawns $40 Million Settlement
San Francisco Weekly
01 may 2011
Schools accused of failing to deliver on promises
Sunday San Francisco Chronicle
11 oct 2010
Gallo files class action against Career Education Corporation’s California School of Culinary Arts
L.A. Weekly Blog
25 jun 2008
Resolving a Conflict of Interest
Businessweek
12 apr 2008
Pinkberry Settles Suit Over Claims on Dessert
New York Times
01 oct 2007
Ray Gallo Files Class Action Litigation Against Career Education Corporation's California Culinary Academy
Globe Newswire
28 sep 2007
Dozens File Suit Against Calif. Culinary Academy
SF Weekly
30 jun 2005
Seafood Fraud Allegations Hit Fast Food Business
Restaurant News Resource
03 sep 2005
Was Boeing's punishment too harsh?
USA Today

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Gallo LLP
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Gallo LLC
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415.257.8800
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