Celia M. Ruiz

Partner

Upon graduating from law school Ms. Ruiz served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Rose Bird of the California Supreme Court, where she assisted the Chief Justice in researching and drafting calendar and conference memoranda and opinions.

After the clerkship for the California Supreme Court, Ms. Ruiz was appointed a visiting law professor at the University of New Mexico, where she taught courses in constitutional law and employment law. Ms. Ruiz has also served as an adjunct professor of law in San Francisco, teaching courses on Education and the Law and Employment Discrimination Law.

Ms. Ruiz has practiced in the fields of public sector and employment law since 1980, specializing in the area of labor and employment law and complex state and federal civil rights litigation. Ms. Ruiz has litigated complex class action matters in state and federal courts in the area of discrimination and desegregation. She has represented a consortium of school districts in a challenge to Proposition 227. McLaughlin v. State Board of Education (1999) 75 Cal.App.4th 196. She also represented Berkeley Unified School District in a significant bilingual education case (Teresa P. v. Berkeley Unified School District, 724 F. Supp. 698 (N.D. Cal. 1989)) and the San Jose Unified School District in a precedent-setting desegregation case (Diaz v. San Jose Unified School District, 633 F. Supp. 808 (N.D. Cal. 1986)).

In the area of personnel, Ms. Ruiz has successfully represented a number of public sector employers in complex litigation on race, sex and disability discrimination matters. Ms. Ruiz also obtained a unanimous jury verdict for Fresno Unified School District in a major jury trial alleging intentional race discrimination and discriminatory patterns and practices.

Ms. Ruiz has extensive background on public sector terminations, layoffs, and labor relations including grievance/arbitration, unfair labor practice charges and collective bargaining. Ms. Ruiz has successfully represented several school districts in teacher termination matters. She also has successfully managed complex teacher layoffs for the Oakland Unified School District, Sacramento City Schools and Richmond Unified School District. She also assists school districts in the area of student discipline, charter schools and special education.

Ms. Ruiz has been trained in the CFIER collaborative bargaining approach and has attended Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. Ms. Ruiz has assisted several districts in impasse, fact-finding and grievance arbitration.