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Steven G. Zieff

Retired Partner

“My law practice has been based on the conviction that we should be using the law to seek justice for workers and to send a message to corporate boardrooms across the country.”

Steve Zieff is a Retired Partner with the law firm of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP, where he has practiced from 1986 to 2023.  After spending his formative years as a public interest lawyer, he first associated with Mark Rudy in 1986, and later they co-founded the partnership in 1989.  Steve established the firm’s wage and hour practice and has been instrumental in pioneering the prosecution of wage and hour class actions in state and federal courts.  He has served as lead counsel in numerous wage and hour class actions, achieving multimillion dollar resolutions in numerous cases. Steve first developed the use of the wage and hour class action to enforce the right to overtime pay when he filed and successfully prosecuted Breaux v. Agency Rent-A-Car in the early 1990s, which was the first case to enforce California overtime laws by the use of the class action device.  In 2001, Steve obtained the largest overtime judgment in United States legal history in the landmark case Bell v. Farmers Insurance Exchange.  In the Bell case, he represented over 2400 employees, eventually recovering over $200 million.  Steve’s work directly led to what became one of the hottest and most prolific areas of employment law – wage and hour class actions.

Besides handling wage and hour cases, Steve also regularly represented individuals in discrimination and wrongful discharge matters.  He frequently handled cases relating to severance and termination of employment, as well as matters involving sexual harassment and discrimination claims.

Steve has authored articles on a variety of employment and litigation related subjects, and has lectured on employment matters at meetings, conferences and MCLE programs sponsored by the Rutter Group – California Judge’s Association, the California Employment Lawyers Association, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the American Trial Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association, the California State Bar, and California Continuing Education of the Bar. He has been honored by having been named as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Law, an honorary society. Mr. Zieff is a recipient of the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (“CLAY”), was named as one of the “Top 100” Most Influential Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal in 2002, and has been frequently listed in the Top 100 Lawyers in Northern California. Mr. Zieff has consistently been listed in the Best Lawyers in America and as a Superlawyer. In 2015, Mr. Zieff was honored by being named Best Lawyers’  “Lawyer of the Year” in San Francisco for San Francisco Litigation – Labor and Employment.  Steve also spends a great deal of time on pro bono matters, including memberships on several public interest boards and writing position pieces for the National Employment Lawyers Association advocating for the rights of American workers.

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