Criminal Law

• Wrongful Death
  Mr. Minami’s practice focuses on the areas of Personal Injury and Wrongful Death, involving claims by persons who have suffered injury, or the death of a close relative through the negligence of another party. He has handled these cases for over 40 years, including claims arising from auto accidents, defective products, slips and falls, accidents involving pedestrians and other situations where persons were injured through the negligence of others. A number of these cases have resulted in verdict and settlement results of over $1 million.
• Fraud
  Consumers, investors, and employees who are victimized by consumer fraud and workplace violations often lack the resources to fight back on their own. In many cases, the only way to protect the rights of our clients against corporate greed is through class action litigation. Class actions allow consumers and employees to join together to pursue their legal claims as a group. Through the class action vehicle, consumers and employees can hold corporations responsible, recover their losses, and ensure fairness in the marketplace.
• Theft

Business and Corporate Law

• Corporate Law
  For over 40 years, Mr. Tamaki has specialized in providing value-driven legal counsel to entrepreneurs, privately-held companies, and nonprofit corporations, with special focus on commercial leasing, personnel and employment law, corporate governance and other internal practices, licensing, acquisition, and other business transactions.
• Mergers and Acquisitions
  Our attorneys are compassionate, solution-oriented and creative in their approach to achieving immigration goals. They are experienced in guiding employers through times of up-sizing and down-sizing, through mergers and acquisitions, and in educating human resource professionals, hiring managers and foreign national employees, and in creating and developing immigration programs. With the assistance of MT’s Business Practice Group and the Employment Practice Group, our attorneys are able to provide full-service and guidance to Employers and Employees in areas beyond immigration, including the establishment of new entities, mergers and acquisitions, I-9 audits, consulting assignments, employee manuals and policy. Our ability to provide this full service enables us to assist both small and large organizations in areas that impact employees and human resource matters.
• Business Transactions
  We provide nonprofit organizations with business and nonprofit law expertise that they need, when they need it, and at a value-driven rate structure. Nonprofit organizations have many of the same needs as for-profit companies for legal expertise in areas such as corporate governance, employment and personnel, technology licensing, commercial leases, professional service agreements and other business transactions. See description of the firm’s General Business Practice above.
• Trade Secrets
• Intellectual Property
  Cum laude in May, 2010. In law school, Ms. Bhatt was a member of Law Review and the Intellectual Property Law Journal and received the Cali Excellence for the Future Awards for the highest grades in several courses.
• Antitrust
  Mr. Tamura’s antitrust and consumer law practice involves prosecuting class actions across the country. He has been involved in some of the largest class action cases on behalf of consumers in the history of antitrust law, including

Employment Law

• Workers Compensation
• Wrongful Termination
  “I would like to express my gratitude and satisfaction to Jack Lee and Minami Tamaki for the handling of an attempted wrongful dismissal by my employer.  I learned the difference between office politics and the law and how not to confuse the two.  Jack’s personal advice also helped me to channel my emotions in a positive manner.  The case was difficult to prove, but with some persistence and sage advice, I was able to extend my employment by six years and retire with dignity.  Thank you.” – Ed M.
• Employment Discrimination
  Sean Tamura-Sato is the Managing Partner at Minami Tamaki LLP and also leads the firm’s Consumer and Employee Rights Group. Mr. Tamura has a diverse legal practice that includes employment law, business litigation, non-profit counseling, and class actions. Mr. Tamura has successfully tried employment discrimination and wrongful termination cases as first chair in federal court and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Employment Contract
  Mr. Tamura advises entrepreneurs, executives, startup founders, and investors in matters involving employment contracts, executive compensation, shareholder & partnership disputes, trade secrets, media & technology, severance agreements, and strategic business decisions. He also provides employment advice and counseling to restaurants, technology startups, medical groups, retailers, and a wide range of businesses in the personal services industry.
• Employment Litigation
  Ms. Mak has served as trial counsel in multiple trials involving a wide variety of employment disputes in state and federal court. In 2016, she was co-lead counsel on a five-week jury trial which resulted in a $3.5 million total verdict for four female officers at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. The verdict was listed in the LexisNexis “Top 10 Employment Verdicts” for 2016, and was recognized by Leaders in the Law in its “Northern California’s Leading Lawyers” 2017 publication.
• Severance Agreement
  Ms. Mak’s practice includes employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, contract claims, and labor code violations. She is experienced in litigation, from pre-litigation negotiations to trials and appeals. Ms. Mak also advises employees on employment contracts and severance agreements.
• Sexual Harassment

Property Law

• Premises Liability
  Mark Fong is a trial lawyer with 41 years of experience who has obtained multi-million-dollar settlements and verdicts, specializing in the trial of catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, premises liability and medical malpractice cases throughout California in State and Federal Court.
• Construction Litigation
  Mr. Fong’s diverse cases include automobile, trucking, aviation, construction, elevator, crane, jet ski and scuba diving accidents; defective medical devices, drugs, and other products; suits against public entities for violation of civil rights and dangerous conditions of public property; medical malpractice arbitrations against Kaiser Hospital/Permanente Medical Group; suits against general contractors and subcontractors for construction defect; breach of contract, fraud and insurance bad faith.
• Property Damage
  We are motivated by knowing that the compensation we secure for our clients helps them regain the dignity and self-sufficiency they had before they were hurt. Our goal is to secure the full amount of money damages allowed by our justice system, including damages for past and future medical, surgical and hospital bills; lost wages and loss of earning capacity; property damage; and past and future pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.

Immigration Law

• Family Immigration
  La Verne Ramsay is a Senior Associate with Minami Tamaki LLP in our Immigration Practice Group. Ms. Ramsay handles all aspects of employment-based and family-based immigration, and post-permanent resident applications, including re-entry permits and naturalization applications.
• Employment Immigration
  Olivia Serene Lee is a Partner at Minami Tamaki LLP in the firm’s Immigration and Nationality practice group, specializing in a variety of employment-based immigration matters. Olivia works with many companies in all stages of a company’s lifecycle, including pre-formation, seed funding, accelerator/incubator programs, early and late stage, acquisitions and mergers, and public offering.
• Business Immigration
  In addition to her legal practice, Olivia has been active in professional and civic affairs. She is currently an elected Director on the Board of Governors for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the national association of more than 16,000 attorneys and law professors who practice and teach immigration law. Since 2009, Olivia has served on the Advisory Council of AILA Northern California, having served as Chair of AILA Northern California from June 2016 to July 2017. Olivia has also met with Congressional offices in Washington, DC, and in the local San Francisco area to advocate for immigration reform. She has served on a number of AILA National committees, including University, Annual Conference, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committees. She serves on the American Bar Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council as an AILA representative. She regularly speaks on local and national AILA CLE panels on topics such as O-1s, H-1Bs, entrepreneur visa options, practice management, and business immigration litigation in federal court. Recently, Olivia authored the chapter “Gathering Evidence for Researchers in Private Industry” for Immigration Options for Academics and Researchers, 3rd Ed (AILA 2021).
• Investor Visas
  Suhi advises clients on all aspects of immigration matters including nonimmigrant and immigrant business visa, investor visa, labor certification application, I-9, corporate immigration program management, and compliance.
• Removal Defense
  During law school, she gained experience as a Summer Law Clerk supporting employment immigration, as an Immigration Legal Services Law Student Intern working with a nonprofit removal defense team, and as a student extern with an immigration law firm with the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. Prior to law school, she worked as an Immigration Legal Assistant for a nonprofit and for a law firm, gaining experience supporting employment and family-based immigration cases.

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  The attorneys in Minami Tamaki’s Personal Injury Practice Group fight for the rights of people who are injured or have suffered the loss of loved ones due to the carelessness of others. We use a team approach which brings all of the resources of our practice group to bear on our cases. This has allowed us to recover multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts for our clients.
• Medical Malpractice
  Ms. Bhatt has practiced personal injury law since 2011, representing those who have been injured through the negligence of others in auto accidents, slips and falls, pedestrian accidents, as a result of defective products and medical malpractice, and in other unfortunate situations.
• Auto Accidents
• Disability Discrimination

Trusts and Estates

• Wills
  Julia was 2L Staff Editor of Hastings International and Comparative Law Review and Vice President of Hastings Human Rights & International Law Organization. She won numerous CALI and Witkin Awards: Immigration Law (both), Administrative Law (both), Advanced Immigration Seminar (CALI), International Law (CALI), Business Associations (CALI), Wills & Trusts (CALI), Criminal Procedure (CALI), Legal Research & Writing I (CALI), and Constitutional Law 2 (Witkin).
• Trusts

Finance Law

• Tax Law
  After graduating from law school, Ms. Bhatt volunteered full-time with a nonprofit in San Francisco working with domestic violence victims on issues involving family, immigration, elder, and tax law. She subsequently moved to Southern California where she practiced personal injury law exclusively. Ms. Bhatt is on the board of the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California and is currently a member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, the Asian American Bar Association, and the Consumer Attorneys of California.