Peter Rukin is a partner in Rukin Hyland & Riggin LLP. Peter specializes in complex employment litigation, with a focus on class wage and hour litigation, equal employment opportunity claims, and the representation of executive and professional employees in employment matters. He is also increasingly called on to mediate employment disputes.
Peter graduated from New York University School of Law in 1991 and served as law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Harry D. Leinenweber in Chicago. Following his clerkship, he practiced at employee-side firms in Chicago (Stowell & Friedman) and New York (Vladeck Waldman Elias & Engelhard) and served as Of Counsel in the Employment Law Department at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in San Francisco, before starting his own firm in March 2003.
Peter is immediate past Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco Labor & Employment Section Executive Committee and is a former member of the State Bar of California Labor & Employment Section Executive Committee. He is a chapter author of the CEB Treatise California Wage and Hour Law and Litigation, and has written numerous articles on employment issues in national and state bar publications. He is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.
Peter is admitted to the State Bars of California, Illinois, and New York, the bars of various district courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.
Representative Cases and Experience
Peter has represented clients in employment cases spanning three decades. He served as counsel for plaintiffs in several groundbreaking sex discrimination class actions against Wall Street investment firms and was one of the first lawyers in California to take a wage and hour class action to trial. Peter has been mediating employment disputes since 2002 and is frequently chosen as a mediator to resolve individual and complex employment cases.
Publications
- Author, CEB California Wage and Hour Law Treatise – Plaintiffs’ Litigation Chapter
- Co-author, CEB California Wage and Hour Law Treatise – Mediation Chapter
- Revisions Editor, California Employment Law (Mathew Bender)
- “NLRA in the 21st Century,” Daily Journal (June 9, 2016)
- “Tech Companies Should Heed Uber,” Daily Journal (September 8, 2015)
- “Planning for the Wage and Hour Class Action Mediation,” California Labor and Employment Law Review (May 2010)
- “Awakening a Sleeping Giant: The Resurgence of Wage and Hour Litigation,” HR Advisor (March, 2001)
- “Representing Workers Under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Illinois Minimum Wage Law,” Illinois Bar Journal (April, 1999)
Professional Activities
- Fellow, College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
- Chair, Bar Association of San Francisco Labor and Employment Section
- Member, State Bar of California Labor and Employment Section Executive Committee
- Member, California State Bar Committee on the Administration of Justice, 2001 – 2003
- Member, American Bar Association Labor and Employment Section (International Committee)
Speaking Engagements
- Morris, DR Horton, and Class Arbitration (California Employment Lawyers Association)
- The Nuts and Bolts of Settlement Negotiations (Alameda County Bar Association)
- International Whistleblower Issues (Bar Association of San Francisco)
- Ethical Issues in Class/Collective Actions (National Employment Lawyers Association)
- Employee or Independent Contractor: Pros and Cons (Continuing Education of the Bar)
- Employment Law Update (Section Education Institute)
- Discovery in a Disability Discrimination Case (State Bar of California Labor & Employment Section)
Awards
- Top 100 Lawyers in Northern California (Superlawyers Magazine)
- Leading 500 Plaintiff Employment Lawyers (Lawdragon)
Bar Admissions
- California, 1995
- Illinois, 1991
- New York, 1998
- U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 1996
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 2001
- U.S. Supreme Court, 1998
Education
- New York University School of Law (JD, 1991)
- University of Illinois (BA, 1988)