Terry v. Wasatch Team Receives the Daily Journal’s
2025 California Lawyer of the Year Award
The co-counsel team of Centro Legal de la Raza, Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee, the Impact Fund, Law Offices of Andrew Wolff, and the California Civil Rights Law Group have been recognized with a 2025 California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) award by the Daily Journal for their work on U.S. ex rel. Terry v. Wasatch Advantage Group. The annual award highlights outstanding lawyers and legal achievements in California over the past year.
From left to right: Anne Bellows, Andrew Wolff, Lori Rifkin, Laura Ho, Jesse Newmark, Larry Organ, Lindsay Nako
The co-counsel team has been recognized for its exceptional work achieving a $16.5 million settlement on the eve of trial, resolving the claims of the three plaintiffs and two certified classes of Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) tenants in California who paid illegal excess rent in violation of the governing Section 8 contracts. The settlement includes a $5 million class recovery that will return 100% of the excess rent plus interest to over 2,500 low-income renters across California, as well as significant injunctive relief eliminating all challenged practices.
Over a decade of litigation, the co-counsel team scored multiple wins, including defeating a motion to dismiss, earning certification of two classes for injunctive and monetary relief, and winning partial summary judgment for the classes. In particular, the summary judgment order clarifies the legal definition and interpretation of “rent” in federal housing programs and will have a positive impact for tenants far beyond this case.
Jesse Newmark of Centro Legal de la Raza said:
“We filed this case over a decade ago to make sure Section 8 tenants have the choice to say ‘no’ to additional service fees they do not want and cannot afford, and will never face the threat of losing their home if they are unable to pay those fees. The plaintiffs and tenant class members have accomplished exactly that.”
The following attorneys are recognized for their work in leading the litigation:
Jesse Newmark, Centro Legal de la Raza
Laura L. Ho, Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee
Anne P. Bellows, formerly of Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee
Stephanie E. Tilden, Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee
Lindsay Nako, Impact Fund
Lori Rifkin, Impact Fund
Fawn Rajbhandari-Korr, Impact Fund
Meredith Dixon, Impact Fund
Andrew Wolff, Law Offices of Andrew Wolff
Christopher Beatty, formerly of Law Offices of Andrew Wolff
Lawrence A. Organ, California Civil Rights Law Group
Marqui Hood, California Civil Rights Law Group
Learn more about all of the 2025 CLAY Award recipients. (subscription required)
ENDS
For more information, contact:
Teddy Basham-Witherington 415.845.1206 / communications@impactfund.org
About Centro Legal de la Raza
Founded in 1969, Centro Legal de la Raza is a nonprofit legal services agency protecting and advancing the rights of low-income and immigrant communities through legal representation, education, and advocacy. By combining quality legal services with know-your-rights education and youth development, Centro Legal ensures access to justice for thousands of individuals throughout Northern and Central California. Click here for Centro Legal’s annual reports.
About Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee
Dardarian Ho Kan & Lee (formerly Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho) is one of the oldest and most successful plaintiffs’ public interest class action law firms in the country. DHKL represents individuals against large companies and other entities in complex class and collective action lawsuits. The firm brings public interest cases in the areas of employment discrimination, wage and hour violations, disability access, voting rights, tenants’ rights, environmental protection, and consumer protections. The firm has a national practice, litigating cases in federal and state courts throughout the country.
About The Impact Fund
The Impact Fund was founded in December 1992 to help advance economic, environmental, racial, and social justice through the courts. It does so principally via the application and protection of the class action tool. Originally envisioned as a purely grantmaking organization, the Impact Fund has made over 800 grants totaling over $10 million. Click here for Grant Criteria and information about Grant Deadlines. Today, the Impact Fund also litigates a small number of cases directly, authors amicus briefs, provides pro-bono consulting, provides templates and software to draft class action notices, and presents an annual conference for plaintiff-side class action practitioners, a training institute for budding public interest class action practitioners, and numerous seminars and webinars. Click here for the Impact Fund’s annual reports.
About the Law Offices of Andrew Wolff
The Law Offices of Andrew Wolff, PC, represents tenants and injured people in California, primarily in the Bay Area. Andrew Wolff was a founding community organizer of the successful Oakland Just Cause ordinance initiative. For nearly three decades, the firm has represented thousands of individual tenants and hundreds of tenants in multiple class action suits related to rent ordinance violations.
What Is A Class Action?
A class action is a type of lawsuit in which one or more individuals sue on behalf of a larger group of people to obtain legal remedies like an injunction, a declaration that a law or practice is unconstitutional, or damages.