FAIR Welcomes Four New Members to Board of Directors
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2024
[LOS ANGELES] – The Foundation for Advocacy, Inclusion and Resources (FAIR) is delighted to welcome four extraordinary attorneys to its all-volunteer board of directors: Adrianne De Castro, Hugo Gamez, Afshin Mozaffari, Andrea (Drea) Núñez. In addition, FAIR board member Laura Alvarenga Scalia has returned from leave and is back in action!
Adrianne De Castro is a Senior Associate at Desai Law Firm, P.C. in Orange County. She has devoted her legal career to advocating for workers and consumers. For the last two decades, she has built an expertise in litigating employment and consumer class actions on behalf of workers and consumers. Prior to joining the Desai Law Firm, P.C., Ms. De Castro was an associate at the law firm of Mower, Carreon, and Desai LLP where she litigated wage and hour and consumer class actions on behalf of restaurant workers, home health care workers, and California consumers. Ms. De Castro has also worked as an associate at the law firm of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff, & Lowe LLP in San Francisco where she focused on individual employment discrimination cases and wage and hour class actions. Ms. De Castro began her career as the Ruth Chance Law Fellow at Equal Rights Advocates where she spent two years representing low-wage women workers in sexual harassment and discrimination cases. Ms. De Castro is also a devoted leader in the legal community with her work focused on ensuring diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, and organizing high quality continuing legal education. She is a Board member of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA), the premier organization in California of employee rights advocates, where she also serves on the Diversity Committee and Education Committee, which she chaired for two years. Ms. De Castro is also a Board Member of Legal Aid at Work where she dedicates her time and resources to raising funds for Legal Aid’s service to low-income workers in the Bay Area. She is also a member of the California Lawyers Association – Executive Committee, Labor & Employment Section where she works with plaintiff and defense-side members of the bar to provide professional services and education to California’s employment practitioners. Ms. De Castro has also been a long-time lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law where she has taught Employment Discrimination for several years. She is also an attorney volunteer at the Workers’ Rights Clinic at Legal Aid Society – Orange County. Ms. De Castro is a 2005 graduate of U.C. Berkeley School of Law, and a 2002 graduate of U.C.L.A.
Hugo Gamez has been practicing law since 2011, primarily in the areas of employment Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation, individual Wage and Hour Disputes, Wage and Hour Class Actions, and PAGA representative actions. In July 2012, he worked as an associate for Shegerian & Associates, Inc., in Santa Monica California, where he focused his practice in employment law. In that capacity, he was the primary attorney for numerous individual Fair Employment and Housing Act matters. In October 2012, he became an associate at Orshansky and Yeremian, LLP., where he handled a great deal of employment class actions and individual discrimination claims. In 2014, he opened his solo practice and has litigated hundreds of cases of discrimination, sex assault and sexual harassment, wrongful termination, disability discrimination, failure to accommodations, leave law violations, retaliation/whistleblower, and wage and hour claims resulting in multi-millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts. For almost a decade, Hugo has been predominately serving the Latino immigrant community, secured a seven figure verdict in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2019, and has gone to trial in the USDC Central District of California. Hugo is a graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law and prior to that obtained a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and an M.A. in Education Policy from Columbia University in the City of New York. He is fully bilingual, bi-literate, and was born and raised in Guatemala until the age of 9 when he immigrated with his family to Inglewood California. He is passionate about providing a voice to disenfranchised immigrant workers and providing them an opportunity to be seen and heard through enforcement of their rights. He is grateful to serve his community and advocate for employee rights and equal justice.
Afshin Mozaffari is the founder and principal of Mozaffari Law, a plaintiff-side employment law firm based in Santa Monica, California. Mr. Mozaffari’s practice focuses on employee rights litigation throughout California, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower and wrongful termination actions. Mr. Mozaffari is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. He has also received the prestigious “AV” Rating from Martindale Hubbell and been recognized as a Super Lawyer by the Super Lawyers Magazine every year from 2020 to 2024; The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Employment Law by U.S. News from 2022 to 2024; Top 40 Under 40 Attorneys in the area of employment law by the National Advocates from 2015 to 2020; and a Rising Star from 2015 to 2019. He is an active member of the California Employment Lawyers Association and the Labor & Employment Sections of the California State Bar and Los Angeles County Bar Association, and has served on multiple boards and committees. Mr. Mozaffari currently serves on CELA’s Legislative Committee and LACBA’s Labor & Employment Law Executive Committee, as well as the Saturday Seminar Committee. Mr. Mozaffari graduated magna cum laude from Whittier Law School, where he served as Articles Editor on the Whittier Law Review, as an extern to the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew of the United States District Court and as a certified law clerk in the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
Andrea (Drea) Núñez is an attorney at Hunter Pyle Law, a workers' rights law firm in Oakland that represents clients in individual and class action cases in wage and hour, retaliation, discrimination, and other disputes. As the daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants, Drea appreciates both how lucky she has been and how easily someone’s life can change due to unlucky circumstances outside of their control. She believes the law is a tool to minimize the role of luck in people’s lives. Drea chose to pursue a career in workers’ rights to secure just outcomes for clients and create systemic change by holding employers accountable, curbing workplace exploitation, and empowering workers to advocate for themselves. Drea received her J.D. from U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 2020, where she served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Co-Director of the Workers’ Rights Clinic, Co-Founder of Catholics at Berkeley Law, and Secretary of La Alianza (formerly La Raza Law Students Association). She also served clients in the Wage Justice Clinic and the Berkeley Immigration Group Detention Outreach Project. During law school, Drea externed for the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges; Legal Aid at Work; and a Bay Area workers’ rights law firm. She graduated with Pro Bono Honors with Highest Distinction and with a Public Interest and Social Justice Certificate. Prior to joining Hunter Pyle Law, Drea was a Law Fellow at the Impact Fund, where she worked on impact litigation, research, training, and amicus briefs in support of social justice.
Laura Alvarenga Scalia is a civil rights attorney at Legal Aid at Work. She has dedicated her career to defending and promoting the rights of immigrant workers, language minorities, and others who face discrimination based on their national origin. Her work also includes community training and legislative advocacy to advance the rights of workers. Ms. Alvarenga Scalia first joined Legal Aid at Work as the Foundation for Advocacy, Inclusion and Resources (FAIR) Fellow and litigated national origin and disability cases. She continued her fellowship at Hennig Kramer Ruiz & Sigh, LLP. While there, she represented employees in disputes involving discrimination, failure to accommodate, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour violations. Ms. Alvarenga Scalia received her B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her J.D., pro bono honors, from the University of California Irvine, School of Law.
“We are thrilled to welcome these new Board members to FAIR to work towards fulfilling our mission, innovating programs, and supporting our annual fundraising.” said Christina Cheung, FAIR Board President.
About FAIR: The Foundation for Advocacy, Inclusion and Resources (FAIR) is a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization committed to promoting diversity, advocating for workers' rights, and supporting aspiring lawyers from diverse backgrounds. Learn more at fair-foundation.org.
For media inquiries, contact:
Caity Moseman Wadler
caity@fair-foundation.org
