Housing and Economic Rights Advocates

Notice: Board Members are not available to provide legal advice to the public on behalf of HERA.
Justin T. Berger
Justin is a Principal at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, where he focuses on false claims act litigation, consumer protection, financial elder abuse, employment law, and other complex civil litigation. Justin has been recognized as one of the top young litigators in California. Justin was named in The Recorder's "Lawyers on the Fast Track," as one of the top 50 attorneys in California with less than 10 years of practice.
In 2012, Justin received a California Lawyer Magazine Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award, along with Niall McCarthy. In 2013 and 2014, Justin has been selected as a Northern California "Super Lawyer" by San Francisco Magazine, and from 2009 to 2012, was named as a "Rising Star." In 2008, Justin was selected as a finalist for the 2008 Consumer Attorney of the Year Award by the Consumer Attorneys of California, for his work on Komarova v. National Credit Acceptance. Justin specializes in representing whistleblowers in qui tam actions under the federal and California False Claims Acts.
In 2011, Justin was selected as a finalist for Consumer Attorney of the Year along with Niall McCarthy, for their work in recovering a record $300 million on behalf of the State of California in a case brought under the California False Claims Act against Quest Diagnostics and other medical laboratories. In September 2013, Justin recovered $19.4 million from Diagnostic Laboratories, Inc., the largest provider of laboratory and x-ray services to nursing homes on the West Coast, in a case brought by two whistleblowers under the False Claims Act.
Darci Burrell
Darci is a partner of Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams LLP. Darci has practiced civil rights and public interest law since she graduated from UCLA Law School in 1995, beginning with a year serving as the Ruth Chance Law Fellow with Equal Rights Advocates. Darci then joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Los Angeles as a staff attorney. Darci returned to the Bay Area in 1998 to serve as a Civil Rights Attorney with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, enforcing laws against discrimination in education on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, gender and disability. Two years later, she joined Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian as a civil litigator involved in a variety of employment discrimination and wage and hour class action lawsuits. Prior to forming LVBH, she was a senior associate with the employment practice group of Boxer & Gerson LLP.

Scott Chang
Scott Chang (Vice-President) is Senior Counsel at the National Fair Housing Alliance, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW #650, Washington, DC 20004. He works from his home in Los Angeles, California. Scott brings several decades of experience as a fair housing attorney, and is a frequent workshop trainer and speaker at national fair housing conferences and events. He was Litigation Director at the Housing Rights Center in Los Angeles before that. Previously, Scott was a staff attorney at Relman and Dane in Washington DC for 12 years, pursuing fair housing litigation on behalf of the public. Previously, Scott managed his own practice, representing both individual clients and fair housing organizations.
Previously, he was a staff attorney at Legal Aid in Santa Clara County. Over the years, Scott has made available his expertise to several non-profit legal service providers throughout California, serving either as primary or co-lead counsel on seminal fair housing cases of which some have resulted in published decisions. Scott Chang has served on the State Bar of California Standing Committees on Federal Courts and the Delivery of Legal Services and is a past president of the Silicon Valley Asian Bar Association.
Contact Info:
Relman & Dane
1225 19th Street
Washington D.C. 20036
(202) 728-1888

Todd Espinosa
Todd is a consumer attorney who has practiced law in the Bay Area since 2000. Originally from San Jose, California, Todd's expertise includes tenants' rights, mortgage and foreclosure law, vacation timeshare law, fair housing law and consumer class action litigation. Todd received his law degree from Harvard Law School and his undergraduate degree from Harvard College. He also holds a master's degree from the U.C. Berkeley Department of City and Regional Planning where he focused on housing and community development. Todd also was a law clerk for the Honorable Claudia Wilken, United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Brian C. Gee
Brian is a member of the Litigation Practice in Greenberg Traurig's Silicon Valley office. He handles virtually all stages of litigation including pre-trial motions, discovery, settlement, and trial preparation. Brian prepares pleadings, motions, oppositions, jury instructions, mediation briefs, and privacy policies.

Amyn Jivani
Amyn Jivani is a Product Marketing Manager for Global Technology Partnerships at Google Cloud, 340 Main Street Los Angeles, CA 90291. Amyn was previously Senior Product Marketing Manager at Salesforce, based in San Francisco. He is responsible for the go to market strategy, positioning, and messaging for the Salesforce Platform. Previously, Amyn was a Product Marketer for the End User Computing business at VMware where he focused on strategy and partnerships. He began his career in business operations and finance, and brings over 8 years of experience focused on corporate strategy, M&A, financial modeling, and strategic planning across the technology industry. Originally from Irvine, CA, Amyn is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, with dual degrees in Business Administration and Political Science.

Sandra Price
Sandra is a partner at the law firm of Sideman & Bancroft LLP in San Francisco, where she specializes in estate planning and advising trustees, executors and beneficiaries on all aspects of estate and trust administration. Sandy has particular expertise in post-death administration, ensuring that assets pass to beneficiaries in the most efficient manner. She is Certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization as a Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law. Sandy is admitted as a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and has been listed as a Northern California SuperLawyer® (top 5% of practicing attorneys) since its inception (2004-2015). She is a member of and the past President of both the San Francisco Estate Planning Council and the Bar Association of San Francisco's Estate Planning and Probate Section, and she was appointed as a member of and advisor to the State Bar's Executive Committee for California's Trusts and Estates Section for a six-year term. Sandy is a co-author of three California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) estate planning and administration treatises and lectures frequently to both lawyers and the public. For several years, Sandy has acted as consultant to HERA where understanding of a probate, trust or post-death issue is critical to assisting a HERA client.

James Zhang
James is a Product Manager at Affirm, a FinTech company focused on delivering honest financial products. Previously, he led the Consumer Credit and Debt team at NerdWallet, where he spearheaded NerdWallet's efforts to fight online predatory lending and connect consumers with alternative resources. He began his career in finance with stints as a private equity associate at the Riverside Company and as an analyst with the Firm Strategy and Corporate M&A team at Morgan Stanley. Originally from Cheshire, CT, James graduated from Yale University with distinction in economics.

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