profile

Shadie L. Berenji

  • Attorney

Areas of Practice

  • Workplace disputes
2019 | Top Attorneys
2018 | Top Women Attorneys
Rated By Super Lawyers | Shadie Berenji | Selected In 2019 | Thomson Reuters
Super Lawyers | 2018
Topverdict.com | California | Top 100 Settlements | All Practice Areas | 2017
Topverdict.com | California | Top 50 Settlements | Labor & Employment | 2017
The National Advocates | Top 100 Lawyers

Biography

Shadie Berenji focuses her legal practice on exclusively representing employees with workplace disputes. Ms. Berenji has a vast array of experience in employment law litigation, with a particular emphasis on wage and hour violations. Ms. Berenji has successfully represented employees in wage and hour class actions, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, retaliation and whistleblower lawsuits.

Ms. Berenji draws on her impeccable education and work training to provide her clients with highly competent legal representation. After graduating from high school at the early age of 15, Ms. Berenji received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2000. She then earned her law degree from the University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law in 2004. Ms. Berenji became licensed to practice in all courts in the State of California, as well as the federal courts in the Ninth Circuit, in 2004.

Ms. Berenji began her legal career by working with first-tier law firms and receiving training from some of the best lawyers in the country. Prior to establishing her law firm, Ms. Berenji worked at one of the largest employment law firms in the nation representing many of the country’s largest employers. During this time period, she received invaluable employment law training and learned how employers defend employment law cases and what strategies and tactics they use to defeat employees’ claims. She also learned what motivates employers to settle or fight cases and the monetary value assigned to claims. Ms. Berenji utilizes this experience to provide her clients with first-rate legal representation and anticipate attacks from the defense.

She has achieved numerous six and seven figure settlements for employees that suffered discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, retaliation and/or did not receive proper wages for hours worked or tasks completed.  Several of Ms. Berenji’s settlements have been featured in news articles published by Bloomberg BNA, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and Law360.

Ms. Berenji recently protected her clients' constitutional right to a jury trial by obtaining favorable rulings from the California Court of Appeal, Second District in the matters of Gerald Lange v. Monster Energy Company (2020) 46 Cal.App.5th 436; Selena Towell v. O'Gara Coach Company, LLC (Oct. 27, 2022) 2022 WL 15205912; and, Chris Mills v. Facility Solutions Group, Inc. (2022) 84 Cal.App.5th 1035.

Education

  • University of Southern California Law Center, Los Angeles, California
    • Juris Doctorate - 2004
  • University of California, Los Angeles, California
    • Bachelor of Arts, Political Science and Sociology, - 2000

Bar Admissions

  • California, 2004
  • U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 2004
  • U.S. District Court Central District of California, 2004
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 2004

Honors and Awards

  • Super Lawyers Top Attorneys in Southern California, 2018-Present
  • Super Lawyers Top Women Attorneys, 2018
  • Super Lawyers Top 100 Up-And-Coming Attorneys, 2017
  • Super Lawyers Top 50 Up-And-Coming Women Attorneys, 2017
  • Top 10 Settlements in Labor & Employment Law Cases in California, 2020
  • Top 50 Settlements in Labor & Employment law cases in California, 2020, 2017
  • Top 100 Settlements in All Practice Areas in California, 2017
  • Top 100 Attorneys by The National Advocates Top 100 Lawyers

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • California Employment Lawyers Association
  • Consumer Attorneys of Association of Los Angeles
  • Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
  • Iranian American Bar Association, Present
  • Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • The USC Law Alumni Association
  • California State Bar, Labor and Employment Law section
  • National Employment Lawyers Associations