James M. Rutkowski
Shareholder

Email: jrutkowski@unioncounsel.net
Telephone: 213-380-2344

Education:
Arizona State University School of Law, 1971
St. Bonaventure University, 1966

James M. Rutkowski joined Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld in 1985. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Rutkowski was a staff attorney with the United Farm Workers of America from 1971 until 1979. Mr. Rutkowski then worked at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles as Assistant Litigation Director and Interim Acting Director until 1985.

While working for UFW, Mr. Rutkowski worked on such groundbreaking cases as Bodine v. United Farm Workers, 494 F.2d 541 (9th Cir. 1974) (upholding grape boycott against antitrust challenge); U.F.W. v. Arizona and Arizona Farm Bureau, 449 F.Supp. 449 (Az. 1978), rev’d. on other grounds, Babbit v. U.F.W., 99 S.Ct. 2301 (1979) (trial decision by three-judge panel in federal court finding AZ farmworker labor relations law unconstitutional); Pena v. Nelson, 400 F.Supp. 493 (invalidating AZ Attorney General’s invalidating recall petition).

Mr. Rutkowski has also worked on such important cases as Thomas v. Los Angeles Police Department (L.A. Superior Court Case No. 000572) (obtained consent decree dramatically changing L.A.P.D.’s procedures for handling domestic violence matters); Farrell v. County of Los Angeles and Hamson v. County of Los Angeles (1992) (recovered over $2 million in FLSA overtime wages for county employees).

Practice Areas:
Labor Arbitrations and Collective Bargaining Negotiations
Employment Discrimination
Draft and Defend Legislation and Regulations
Public Sector