Paul represents public and private sector clients in high stakes litigation, including putative and certified wage and hour, misclassification, harassment, and discrimination class actions. His practice focuses on complex employment litigation, and he has significant experience in all aspects of the transportation industry. Paul’s practice also includes providing compliance advice and counseling on employment law and transportation law issues. He has handled a wide variety of individual and multi-plaintiff cases in federal and state court including race, sex, disability, and age discrimination suits, as well as breach of employment contract, wrongful termination, fraud, defamation, whistle-blower, wage and hour and other employment-related litigation.

Paul frequently counsels employers and management in litigation prevention and compliance issues including leave of absence, accommodation of disabilities, wage and hour, employee discipline and termination, internal investigations, personnel policy issues, and reductions in force. Paul has extensive experience assisting clients concerning employment law issues that regularly present during the merger and acquisition process. He also routinely negotiates and drafts employment, independent contractor, and severance agreements for his clients.

In addition, Paul represents public sector clients in putative and certified class actions relating to the delivery of health care and programs to persons incarcerated in or paroled from state and local correctional facilities. Paul also counsels public sector clients on corrections operations, including specifically the constitutionality of the delivery of services and risk analysis. He also assists public sector clients in putative and certified class action litigation alleging police department wrongdoing.

Bar Admissions

• California
• Supreme Court of the United States
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

Education
J.D., University of California, Davis School of Law (1995)
B.A., University of California, Davis (1991)

Significant Accomplishments

Babu v. County of Alameda. Paul represents the County defendants in this certified class action challenging the delivery of mental health services to all incarcerated persons housed at Santa Rita Jail.  Paul and the defense team negotiated resolution of this complex matter and obtained approval by the District Court for the parties’ negotiated consent decree.

Coleman v. Newsom. Paul is currently co-counsel with the California Attorney General's office in the Coleman v. Newsom case.  In Coleman, Paul represents the State of California, including the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), in a class action lawsuit concerning the delivery of mental health care that is provided to all incarcerated persons housed in the State’s prison system.

Mollard v. Roadrunner Transportation Systems. Obtained complete dismissal of disability and retaliation claims against transportation and logistics company by summary judgment. 

Helfter v. Nortech Waste. Obtained complete dismissal of age, disability, retaliation, and wage and hour claims against private waste management company by summary judgment. 

Freeman v. Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District. Defeated class certification in a Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) case alleging violation of the credit and debit card “truncation” requirement, in which potential statutory damages to public agency client were $40 million.

Plata v. Newsom. Paul is currently co-counsel with the California Attorney General's office in the Plata v. Newsom case. Plata is a class action case against the State of California, including CDCR, concerning the delivery of medical care to all incarcerated persons housed in the State's prison system.

Valdivia v. Brown and L.H. v. Brown. Paul was lead counsel for the State in the Valdivia v. Brown and L.H. v. Brown cases. Paul successfully argued for decertification of the class and the termination of the Valdivia case, a nineteen-year-old class action case that was brought against the State of California challenging the constitutionality of California’s adult parole revocation processes. Paul was also lead counsel in the L.H. v. Brown case and orchestrated the termination of the L.H. class action which challenged the parole revocation processes for juvenile offenders in California.

California Furlough Litigation. Paul was co-counsel for the State of California in consolidated litigation relating to California’s 2010-2011 budget impasse and the California Department of Personnel Administration’s implementation of the Governor’s furlough program.

Ranjan v. Patni Computer Systems, Ltd. et al. Paul represented Patni Computer Systems, Ltd., Patni Telecom Solutions, Inc., and iGATE, Inc., in an employment law action alleging, among other things, breach of contract, declaratory relief, intentional misrepresentation, as well as a separate cause of action for interference with a contract against iGATE. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint based upon a forum selection clause. The Alameda County Superior Court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss, finding the parties’ forum selection clause was enforceable and thus, that it was reasonable for plaintiff to litigate his claims in the High Court of Bombay, India.

Allen, et al. v. City of Oakland, et al. In September 2012, Paul was retained as co-counsel, along with the City of Oakland's City Attorney's office, in this civil rights class action case involving allegations of police misconduct against the City's Police Department. Defense counsel successfully defended against placement of the Police Department into Receivership. Instead, the Federal Court appointed a Compliance Director to assist the City in attaining substantial compliance with the parties' Negotiated Settlement Agreement.

Professional Associations

• Transportation Lawyers Association, Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Co-Chair; Past Member of the Executive Committee
• National Home Delivery Association, Outside General Counsel
• Bar Association of San Francisco

• The Trucking Industry Absorbs Yet Another Blow at the Hand of the California Supreme Court

  By Paul Mello |May 2018

Additional Articles"The Supreme Court Declined Review of AB5, Now What: Revisiting the Broker Model," National Home Delivery Association Monthly Newsletter (July 2022)
"COVID-19 Vaccines and the Workplace: What Employers Need to Know About Mandatory Vaccination Policies," Transportation Lawyers Association (July 2021)
“California’s Proposition 22: It Passed, Now What?,” The Transportation Lawyer (February 2021)
"California Legislature Passes Bill that Will Permit Shippers to Be Held Jointly Liable for State Labor and Employment Law Violations by Port Trucking Companies," co-author, The Transportation Lawyer (December 2018)
"Defusing the Misclassification Risk: The Broker Model What it is and How it Works," co-author, The Transportation Lawyer (October 2018)
"California Legislature Passes Bill That Will Permit Shippers To Be Held Jointly Liable For State Labor And Employment Law Violations By Port Trucking Companies" co-author, Transportation Law Alert (September 2018)
"The Defend Trade Secrets Act Opens Federal Courts To Claims Of Misappropriation Of Trade Secrets," co-author, Labor & Employment Law Alert (May 2016)
"No Fooling: New FEHA Regulations Go Into Effect April 1, 2016," co-author, Labor & Employment Alert (March 2016)
"Overtime Class Actions: Alive and Kicking in California," Employment Law Bulletin (2004)

Appellate Insight

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A Hanson Bridgett blog updating on current Appellate news/events.

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Hanson Bridgett LLP

Briefly is designed to provide readers with updates on the latest litigation developments in California. Our focus is on general litigation as well as issues surrounding class actions, products liability, discovery, privacy, cybersecurity, and the professional practice of law.