Family Law

• Adoption

Criminal Law

• Criminal Defense
• DUI/DWI
  Morgan Ricketts is a partner at Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP and a trial attorney specializing in police misconduct and employment litigation. At the start of her career, she worked for Quinn Emanuel and LTL Attorneys. She has also represented criminal defendants accused of crimes ranging from DUI to special circumstances murder. In 2012, she founded her own firm to focus on civil rights and employment cases, obtaining favorable results in difficult cases. She has represented protesters whose First Amendment rights have been violated, including in association with class actions regarding the Ferguson and George Floyd protests; prisoners alleging structural flaws in custodial health care systems; people who have been wrongfully arrested; and people who have been disfigured by police brutality. Her work has been featured in numerous publications. Ms. Ricketts has been invited to speak on civil rights cases on numerous occasions, and has testified before the California legislature on both the Ferguson protests and the widespread adoption of bodyworn cameras for law enforcement officers. Ms. Ricketts is a past President of the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles and remains deeply involved in their work.
• Wrongful Death
  $1,400,000 settlement in wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of mother and Estate of Michael Lee. Mr. Lee was entered the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation with a documented history of mental illness and suicide attempts. Once incarcerated, Mr. Lee was denied constitutionally adequate mental health care and committed suicide.
• Sex Crimes
  Tanya Sukhija-Cohen joined Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP in 2019. She specializes in civil rights, employment, and international human rights law. In her career, Ms. Sukhija-Cohen has contributed to several six- and seven-figure settlements, including cases involving sexual harassment, sexual assault, police excessive force, prisoner abuse, employment discrimination, and wrongful conviction. Her other recent accomplishments include securing a preliminary injunction to stop a California city from selling a 100-acre property unless it first made the land available for use as open space and affordable housing. Ms. Sukhija-Cohen also filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of six former child slaves in their case against two U.S. corporations who allegedly aided and abetted child slavery and forced labor in West Africa.
• Fraud
  Many illegal corporate practices and violations of antitrust and unfair competition laws go unchallenged for years until someone steps forward with a concern. Misrepresentation of products and services, false advertising, and other forms of consumer fraud only extend the economic imbalance in our country and cause financial losses for countless individuals.
• Robbery
  Lawsuit filed against the City of Whittier and its police officers on behalf of family subjected to armed robbery after the officers abandoned them at a crime scene. $405,000 settlement obtained in 2020.
• Theft
• Embezzlement
  Our whistleblower cases have involved complaints by employees ranging from embezzlement and fraud to discrimination and unlawful labor practices. It is illegal for an employer to retaliate against an employee for reporting a violation of a state or federal law or noncompliance with a local, state, or federal law or for refusing to engage in the conduct reasonably believed to be unlawful.
• Assault
• Murder
  Today the family of Tony Garza joined lawyers from the civil rights law firm Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP in filing government tort claims against the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, and California Highway Patrol for the murder of Tony Garza. California law requires the filing of a government tort claim before suing law enforcement agencies and officers for money damages under state law. The family and their attorneys have also sent letters to the U.S. Attorney, California Attorney General, and San Bernardino and Riverside County District Attorneys calling for the prompt investigation and prosecution of the officers responsible for this unjustified killing of a man with mental illness who posed no threat.
• Arson
• Restraining Order
  Represented non-profit community organization and successfully obtained a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction preventing the illegal sale of an approximately 100-acre greenfield in park poor area of Santa Ana. This lawsuit forced the City of Garden Grove, which owns the land, to comply with the Surplus Land Act, which requires cities to prioritize land they no longer need for use as affordable housing and park space.

Business and Corporate Law

• Unfair Competition
  At Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP, our attorneys have extensive experience as lead counsel and co-counsel in multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuits against companies that violate antitrust and unfair competition laws and engage in deceptive practices to defraud and exploit unsuspecting customers.
• Antitrust
  In Re TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation, MDL 7269 (Judge Illston) United States District Court, Northern District of California. Antitrust class action on behalf of direct purchasers of LCD screens alleging a nationwide class for price-fixing. The case settled for more than $400,000,000.Â

Employment Law

• Wrongful Termination
  Our wrongful termination lawyers at Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP have successfully pursued numerous high-value claims for people in California who have been terminated in violation of state and federal law. Our reputable and esteemed law firm has brought suit in state and federal court against scores of major corporations, including Texaco, Unocal, Verizon, Disney, ConocoPhillips, Northrup, MCA/Universal, Walmart, US Tobacco, Amgen, and many others. These cases have resulted in millions of dollars in settlements and judgments for our clients and significant institutional changes at these companies.
• Employment Discrimination
  Although people certainly do not live solely to work, most people must work to live and support their families. What we do for a living often defines who we are. Victims of job discrimination too often suffer in silence because of their fear of retaliation if they were to speak out. This makes their courage in coming forward all the more remarkable. Our Pasadena employment discrimination lawyers give their all to reward that courage through legal action.
• Employment Contract
  Employment contracts can include protections against arbitrary actions like termination and discipline without a good cause. The terms of an employment contract can also provide for a severance to be paid to the employee if the employer terminates the relationship. When a breach of contract results in lost income or causes the employee to lose valuable rights, then the employee can attempt to recover financial losses that resulted from the breach.
• Employment Litigation
  Over the past three decades, the firm has persevered in advancing the line towards justice in civil rights and employment litigation, garnering a long list of groundbreaking and historic cases and victories. Whether it was holding the Los Angeles Police Department responsible for allowing homophobia to infiltrate the workplace in
• Severance Agreement
  Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP has negotiated seven-figure severance agreements for employees of major Southern California employers, including such results as...
• Sexual Harassment
  The firm was founded by civil rights trial lawyers Barbara Hadsell and Dan Stormer in September 1991. Barbara had joined Dan’s firm Litt and Stormer in 1989, and when that firm dissolved, Hadsell & Stormer was born. Within a month, Barbara and Dan each had won multi-million dollar verdicts. Barbara had obtained what was then the largest sexual harassment verdict in the country of $3.1 million in

Property Law

• Eminent Domain
  Represented over 300 low-income families in a struggle to preserve land for a much-needed urban community garden in South Los Angeles. In 2004, Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit challenging the City of Los Angeles’ sale of the 14-acre community garden to a private developer. The City of Los Angeles had acquired the property by eminent domain from the developer in the 1980s, and for many years thereafter, the property was used by members of the community as an urban farm and community garden. Then, in 2002, the developer filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for alleged breach of an agreement to sell the property. Despite prevailing in the early stages of the litigation, the City suddenly and inexplicably agreed to settle the lawsuit with the developer in 2003. Plaintiffs then filed suit in February 2004, alleging a taxpayer claim for waste by the City for expending public funds to settle litigation without adequate consideration. The case was hard fought but ultimately lost at trial. The South Central Farmers garnered nationwide support for its cause, and the grassroots organization continues today in its commitment to engaging and empowering community members around attaining food sovereignty and access to high quality organic produce. The Oscar-nominated 2008 American documentary film The Garden details the story of the South Central Farmers and the struggle to keep the community garden.

Immigration Law

• Family Immigration
  Ms. De Gonzalez grew up with two UNITE HERE members in her multi-generational household which taught her the contributions and struggles of restaurant and hotel workers from an early age. Ms. De Gonzalez graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Columbia Law School. After graduation, she was a Social Justice Pathways Fellow at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice where she worked with victims of domestic violence in East Los Angeles. Immediately prior to joining the firm, Ms. De Gonzalez was an Associate at the Law Office of Alma Rosa Nieto, where she practiced a wide variety of family-based immigration matters. Currently she counsels and represents clients before the United States Citizenship and immigration Services (USCIS) and the National Visa Center (NVC) specializing in adjustment of status, consular processing, and naturalization cases.

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  Ms. Hadsell has represented large numbers of plaintiffs in a variety of complex and novel situations, including wage and hour class actions (such as Flores v. Albertson’s, et al, a case brought by a class of thousands of janitors against California’s major supermarket chains); farm workers in labor disputes and various legal aid, grassroots citizens’ groups and public interest organizations in "SLAPP suits" filed against them; unique slumlord actions, including Pineda vs. Wallman, BC245543 [stating claims on behalf of nearly 120 individuals for wrongful death and personal injury in the collapse of an apartment building suffering from rot and mold due to the owners' neglect and conscious disregard] and Antonia Leon Roman v. Mervin Kurtzman, C 600 773 [a wrongful death and personal injury action against owners of an apartment complex who subjected their tenants to an arson fire which killed four members of a garment district family and very seriously burned and traumatized four others]. Indeed, Ms. Hadsell tried the seminal slumlord case, Hernandez v. Stabach, in which she represented nearly 30 families in a three-month-long trial that set many of the parameters for such litigation for years to come.
• Disability Discrimination

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Seeking a bilingual (Spanish) estate planning paralegal/legal assistant for immediate full time employment at Downtown LA office of a dynamic law firm which provides legal services to union workers. Must have substantial experience working closely with clients to gather information for living trusts and drafting.
• Trusts

Finance Law

• Bankruptcy
• Debt Collection
  Unfair Debt Collection Practices: This is a practice where debt collectors use deceptive and/or abusive tactics to pressure you into paying.