Celia M. Ruiz

Partner

Celia M. Ruiz is the founding partner of Ruiz & Sperow, LLP, located in Emeryville, California.  Ms. Ruiz has practiced public sector and employment law since 1980, specializing in labor and employment law and complex state and federal civil rights litigation. She has litigated complex class action matters in state and federal courts in the area of discrimination and desegregation, in bench and jury trials for public entity clients.
 
 Ms. Ruiz has successfully represented a number of public sector employers in complex litigation on race, sex and disability discrimination matters.  Ms. Ruiz also has an extensive background in public sector terminations, layoffs, and labor relations including grievance/arbitration, unfair labor practice charges and collective bargaining. She has successfully represented several school districts in teacher termination, layoffs and highly specialized education law matters including special education, student discipline and charter schools.  She has been trained in the CFIER collaborative bargaining approach and has attended Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. She has assisted several districts in impasse, fact-finding and grievance arbitration.                    
 

Upon graduating from Boalt Hall School of Law, 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, 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. She is fluent in Spanish.