Arthur H. Bryant, Executive Director of Public Justice and the Public Justice Foundation, has won major victories and established new precedents in several areas of the law, including constitutional law, toxic torts, civil rights, consumer protection, and mass torts.  The National Law Journal has named him one of the 100 Most Influential Attorneys in America.  He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in the World.

abryant@publicjustice.net

Jim Hecker, Environmental Enforcement Project Director at Public Justice, received an undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Illinois, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Jim earned his J.D., magna cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law. He earned distinctions as a member of the Order of the Coif, and as editor of the Law Forum. During law school he interned with the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C.

jhecker@publicjustice.net

Adele P. Kimmel is the Managing Attorney at the D.C. headquarters of Public Justice. She has served as counsel in a wide variety of precedent-setting cases, with a particular emphasis on civil rights issues. These cases include constitutional and tort cases on behalf of immigrant detainees and prisoners, Title IX sex discrimination class actions on behalf of women intercollegiate athletes, Title IX retaliation cases on behalf of intercollegiate coaches, Title VII employment discrimination cases based on race, national origin and sex, a Title VI race discrimination class action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, First Amendment/free speech cases, and Fair Housing Act cases on behalf of people with disabilities.

akimmel@publicjustice.net

F. Paul Bland, Jr., a Staff Attorney at Public Justice since 1997, is responsible for developing, handling, and helping Public Justice’s cooperating attorneys litigate a diverse docket of public interest cases. 

Paul has argued and won more than 20 cases that have led to reported decisions for consumers, employees or whistleblowers in four of the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the high courts of six different states.  He is currently handling or assisting with appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; the California, Florida, Kentucky and Nevada Supreme Courts; and the Maryland Court of Appeals. 

pbland@publicjustice.net

Leslie A. Brueckner is a Staff Attorney at Public Justice. She received her A.B. degree summa cum laude from U.C. Berkeley in 1983, where she received the University Medal for the Most Distinguished Graduating Senior.  Ms. Brueckner is also a 1987 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School.  In December 1993, she joined Public Justice (then Trial Lawyers for Public Justice), where her areas of practice include Title IX, federal preemption, combating court secrecy, and objecting to illegal or unfair class action settlements. 

lbrueckner@publicjustice.net

Victoria W. Ni is a Staff Attorney in the Oakland, CA office of Public Justice.  Since she joined the firm in 2000, Vicky has worked on a variety of cases brought to protect consumers’ and victims’ rights, rights of the disabled, free speech, and equal opportunity in athletics and in the workplace.  Her litigation work includes representation of female employees, wrongfully arrested peaceful protesters, disabled travelers, and a young girl who had been denied an opportunity to play baseball for her high school.

vni@publicjustice.net

Leslie A. Bailey joined Public Justice in August 2004 and is a Staff Attorney. Leslie’s practice focuses on consumers’ rights, including fighting abusive mandatory arbitration clauses and federal preemption defenses; civil rights, including the rights of people with disabilities and prisoners; and challenges to unnecessary court secrecy orders.  She was a member of the trial team in Hankin v. City of Seattle, a class action in federal court on behalf of nearly 200 people arrested in downtown Seattle in 1999 while protesting against the WTO.  The trial resulted in a jury verdict that the city had violated the protesters’ Fourth Amendment rights, and the case settled for $1 million. 

lbailey@publicjustice.net

Claire Prestel is a Staff Attorney with Public Justice in the national headquarters in Washington, D.C.  Before joining Public Justice, Claire was an Assistant General Counsel for the Service Employees International Union and was associated with the labor and civil rights firm Altshuler Berzon LLP in San Francisco.  Claire's work at SEIU included efforts related to nursing home reform legislation at the federal and state levels, as well as legal challenges to a $6.3 billion nursing home merger.  Claire's work at Altshuler Berzon included litigation of civil rights, wage-and-hour, labor law, and constitutional claims on behalf of local and international unions and employee and consumer classes in federal and state court and before the National Labor Relations Board.    
cprestel@publicjustice.net

Amy Radon is the Goldberg, Waters & Kraus Fellow at Public Justice, where she practices in the firm’s Access to Justice, civil rights, and consumer rights litigation areas. She has given numerous speeches and authored a number of articles for Public Justice’s Mandatory Arbitration Abuse Prevention Project, including Judicial Trends in 2006: Consumers Winning More Battles Against Big Business, Andrews Litigation Reporter Vol. 13, Issue 12 (Jan. 2007) and State Attorneys General Weigh In About Vital Role Of Class Actions In Consumer Protection Cases, Mealey’s Litigation Report Vol. 7, Issue 6 (May 3, 2007). 

aradon@publicjustice.net

Tami Alpert is the Power-Cotchett Fellow at Public Justice. Upon graduating from Harvard Law School in 2006, Tami worked as a television documentary producer and director for a non-profit organization, Downtown Community Television Center, in New York City. Tami has worked on numerous domestic and international news reports and documentaries, from Arizona to Afghanistan. Last year, she served as Assistant Producer for HBO’s “Alive Day Memories” and she filmed and directed “The Bridge” a cultural exchange program between Egyptians and Americans broadcast on Hallmark Channel. Her broad range of experiences both in the media and law reflect a consistent commitment to serving the public. Tami grew up in New York City and attended Yale University.

talpert@publicjustice.net

Melanie Hirsch is the Brayton-Baron Fellow at Public Justice.  Her work at Public Justice includes authoring an amicus curiae brief in Komarova v. National Credit Acceptance and an article discussing issues that commonly arise in employment arbitrations.

mhirsch@publicjustice.net

Matt Melamed is the Kazan-Wallace Fellow at Public Justice.  His work at Public Justice has included authoring a petition for a writ of mandamus in Picardi v. United Hyundai and several articles for Public Justice’s Mandatory Arbitration Abuse Prevention Project. 

mmelamed@publicjustice.net