Sonya Mehta - Challenging the Powerful

Louis Goodman / Sonya Mehta - Transcript

[00:00:03] Louis Goodman: Welcome to the Alameda County Bar Association and the Love Thy Lawyer podcast. I'm your host Louis Goodman. Today we welcome Sonya Mehta to the podcast. Ms. Mehta is a trial attorney and partner with Siegel, Yee, Bruner & Mehta. She is a dedicated advocate for individuals and labor unions. She has won multimillion dollar verdicts and significant settlements.

She served two terms as President of Women Lawyers of Alameda County and now serves on the board of the Alameda County Bar Association, so we are very happy to have her today on the podcast. Sonya Mehta, welcome to the Love Thy Lawyer Podcast and the Alameda County Bar Association. 

[00:00:54] Sonya Mehta: Thank you. It's an honor to be here.

[00:00:57] Louis Goodman: It's so nice to have you. We really appreciate your being on. Where are you speaking to us from right now? 

[00:01:03] Sonya Mehta: I'm here in beautiful Oakland, California. 

[00:01:07] Louis Goodman: Is that what your office is? 

[00:01:09] Sonya Mehta: My office is in downtown, but I'm at home today. 

[00:01:11] Louis Goodman: Can you tell us in your words, how you describe your practice? 

[00:01:17] Sonya Mehta: Yes. I cite the wealthy and powerful for fun, and sometimes justice. I represent individual employees for in workers' rights matters, including retaliation, discrimination, and I also represent labor unions. My focus and take any kind of defendant, but I'm one of the rare employment and labor attorneys that wills through public agencies for better or for worse.

[00:01:44] Louis Goodman: And how long have you had this type of practice? 

[00:01:48] Sonya Mehta: So I've been practicing for 11 years now, and I started because of Dan Siegel, who's unfortunately passed away recently, but he blazed the path for this, and I've been with him this the whole time I practiced law. 

[00:02:03] Louis Goodman: Where are you from originally? 

[00:02:04] Sonya Mehta: I was born in Canada, but my roots are Indian and Malaysian, Singaporean.

My dad was actually born in Zanzibar, Khadhrati Indian and my mom was born in Singapore and she's Malaysian, Punjabi, and a little bit Chinese. 

[00:02:20] Louis Goodman: When did you move here to California, in the Bay Area? 

[00:02:24] Sonya Mehta: Just when I was a little kid, so I think of myself as a Bay Area person. 

[00:02:28] Louis Goodman: Where'd you go to high school? Did you go around here?

[00:02:31] Sonya Mehta: Mission San Jose in Fremont. 

[00:02:33] Louis Goodman: And then when you graduated from Mission San Jose in Fremont, where did you go to college? 

[00:02:38] Sonya Mehta: I went to UC, Berkeley. 

[00:02:39] Louis Goodman: What was that like, transitioning from high school and Fremont to University of California and Berkeley? They're not geographically that far apart, but I think those two areas of Alameda County as being very culturally far apart.

[00:02:55] Sonya Mehta: Oh, it was a great liberation because Fremont was pretty competitive and a little bit materialistic, and especially in high school, we were all expected to get into the best school and make money and all that. But I have always been a social justice person, workers' rights person, so I went to, when I went to Berkeley, I felt really understood and the history and culture and the movement there felt very supportive and wonderful. That was great. 

[00:03:22] Louis Goodman: Did you get involved in any specific sort of social justice activities when you were at Berkeley? 

[00:03:28] Sonya Mehta: I did. Right away, I joined a group then called Students Organizing for Justice in the Americas, and we did antisweatshop work. We did antisweatshop fashion shows where we would model in front of the students and say, this t-shirt, a worker had to work day and night for this and was paid pennies on the dollar for what it was sold. So it was an amazing experience. 

[00:03:48] Louis Goodman: You ultimately went to law school. Did you take any time off between college and law school, or did you go right through? 

[00:03:55] Sonya Mehta: No, I was actually a community organizer for 10 years before I went to law school. 

[00:04:01] Louis Goodman: Where did you go to law school?

[00:04:02] Sonya Mehta: I went to City University of New York in New York, in Queens, New York. 

[00:04:08] Louis Goodman: Well, that was also probably a pretty big transition. Tell us about that. 

[00:04:13] Sonya Mehta: It was, I went from, because I had been an organizer in the Bay Area and I was pretty well known. I had some major victories in that world. So when I went to law school, I became a student again, and I was a nobody.

And I didn't come from a family that had a legal background. I didn't know any lawyers, so it was all pretty new to me. And so it was a little challenging to adjust to my new identity. But I'm really thankful. I'm so grateful to be able to practice law, and I'm so grateful for that education and to be able to use it in this way.

[00:04:47] Louis Goodman: What prompted you to go to school in New York? 

[00:04:49] Sonya Mehta: For one thing, I was sick of a dating pool here in the Bay Area, so I decided to try something new and I met my wonderful husband there, so it worked. Then CUNY, of course, is the nation's premier social justice school. It's the most diverse school racially, class-wise. They used to have a daycare there. I don't know if they still do. It was definitely the school for me out of every school in the country. 

[00:05:13] Louis Goodman: Do you think that having taken time off between college and law school and having worked in essentially a legally adjacent field to what you were actually going to go into in law, do you think that helped focus you in terms of your legal studies? 

[00:05:31] Sonya Mehta: Yes, I do because I, so I was a community and worker organizer. I did economic justice work and I think that really cleared, clarified for me how power works. I don't believe that power is one in the courtroom. I think you win campaigns, you win change out in the community.

You have to organize the community. You need that power in order to pass legislation that protects whatever community you're talking about. So I don't, I'm not, you know, it's, of course, it's very important that we carefully read the law and carefully apply the law, but I don't think change happens in the courtroom.

I think it starts elsewhere. So I think that helped me a lot, especially as I work with my labor union clients. I understand their goals and their strategies on a different level. Dan Siegel, who maybe people know, he was civil rights lawyer for 40 years, an amazing person. He hired me without me having passed the bar because he knew my politics and because Siegel, he at that time, Siegel, he was devoted to these social justice cases, employment right cases.

So he knew I would fit right in. So I stayed with Dan until now, I'm still there. They made me a partner in 2019 and Dan's philosophy is, figure it out. And so I did. I was able to do trials and hearings and represent clients directly and do all that work that I think if you worked at a big corporate firm, you probably wouldn't do until you were in year 12 or 15 or something.

It was an amazing experience to work with Dan. 

[00:07:11] Louis Goodman: You have had lots of experience. There's a lot of things that you could do, but you've chosen to practice law and you've chosen to stay practicing law. What is it about the practice of law that you like and that keeps you as an attorney? 

[00:07:25] Sonya Mehta: I really like the actual practice of law. Issue spotting, even discovery, proving the case. I love proving the case. I love calling witnesses and getting your smoking gun or your hot tip. That whole detective part of things. And I love trial. I feel I am in such a flow state in so many parts of the practice of law where I'm just completely focused and I love that experience.

But more, I am here for workers' rights. I have an amazing talent and an amazing skill that I can apply to make things better for working people. And I think the way things are now is so incredibly unfair. We have eight billionaires that run everything we have and all of that trickled down into it like frighteningly unjust system.

So the fact that I can use my voice and use my education to make things more fair is such a blessing. 

[00:08:25] Louis Goodman: You talk about going up against the rich and the powerful and yet you are in a business, you have a law practice and a law firm that's a business that needs to make a certain amount of money in order to pay the attorneys, pay the employees. Talk a little bit about the business of practicing law in the field that you're in. 

[00:08:47] Sonya Mehta: I think employment rights is so interesting because the remedy is often, it's back pay, front pay, it's pay, it's money. And generally in the courts the remedy is money, but even more so for workers, right? Maybe you were denying your overtime or they fired you unjustly and you weren't paid an important part about running an employment rights business, law business is picking your cases well. The greatest victory for workers is getting a big fat verdict, and I've learned so much also from my other partner, Alan Yee, and I have another partner, Jane Brunner, who's taught me a lot too. And the way I've seen Alan run the business, it's so empowering too.

Lawyers are not really business people generally, but when you run a firm or run a small firm, you get to learn how to do the profit and loss and how to think about things. So it's been an unexpected perk to learn how to do business management. 

[00:09:42] Louis Goodman: Are the fees, generally speaking, contingency fees in your business?

[00:09:47] Sonya Mehta: But it can be a mix, but generally yes. Employment laws is that way, and then employment law also has attorneys because of our government's commitment to anti-discrimination. 

[00:09:58] Louis Goodman: So those are fees that are ordered by the court because of the nature of the case? 

[00:10:03] Sonya Mehta: Exactly, yes. 

[00:10:05] Louis Goodman: I have a two part question and you could answer either one part or the other, however you wanna do it.

What do you think is the best advice you've ever received, and what advice would you give to a young attorney just starting out? 

[00:10:22] Sonya Mehta: The best advice I've ever received in the law is look at the jury instructions. Decide if you can beat those jury instructions. The best advice in life, I would say, are the teachings of the Buddha.

Be here now. Experience life as you can. And then for a law student, I would say, Hey, you know the old test nut, right? This is why we call it a practice. You're gonna make mistakes and the only way you'll learn how to be an attorney is by being an attorney. So don't be too hard on yourself. 

[00:10:54] Louis Goodman: I'm gonna shift gears here a little bit.

What's your family life been like? How has the practice of law fit into that, your family life fit into the practice of law? What sorts of things do you like to do recreationally to try and get your mind off of the practice of law once in a while. 

[00:11:08] Sonya Mehta: Like I said, my husband is so wonderful. He is a great cheerleader and support, and I think it's so important for women to have a partner who really wants to see you succeed.

So I can never thank him enough. And then I have two cats, my pawlegals who hang out and they help me. One is asleep right here. Work hard at work. And then my immediate family and my husband's family are really supportive. They're proud to have a lawyer in the family. And then in my personal life, I try and really enjoy my circumstances.

I live in a beautiful neighborhood that's full of flowers and plants, so I go walking, I do wait listing. I listen to audio books. I'm a daily meditator, and I definitely practice that. Then I like to keep up with the good news. Where are the strikes happening? Who's won a contract? Where are we actually making progress?

So that to me is the good news. I love music and I try to really find enjoyment in just every moment. 

[00:12:09] Louis Goodman: Tell us a little bit about your work with the Alameda County Bar Association and how you came to be as involved with the Bar Association as you are serving on the board and having been a member for quite a while. 

[00:12:22] Sonya Mehta: So I was always a fan of the ACBA because of their fantastic program of the free MCLEs. So once they joined and I was able to listen to all this amazing, all these really interesting speakers and areas of practice that I didn't know about, and I think they asked me to join and join the board. And so I did, and I'm really proud of ACBA because this year ACBA co-host in the rule of law demonstrations that you may have seen where around the country lawyers were speaking up for due process in this context, and I was just so proud of them for lending their voice to that.

And I see them now, they're continuing to do the work of how do we as lawyers support the law, maintaining the law or system that is the one bulwark against violence. 

[00:13:14] Louis Goodman: Let's say you and your husband came into some real money, let's say three or $4 billion. What, if anything, would you do differently in your life?

[00:13:23] Sonya Mehta: So I think then my life would change to thinking about how to give it away and who to support, and I'd have the world's biggest strike fund. That would be fun. But I think, yeah, if I had that kind of money, I would dedicate myself to how to use it to improve things. 

[00:13:41] Louis Goodman: Let's say you had a magic wand. There was one thing in the world you could change the legal world, the world in general. Just one thing that you could wave your magic wand at. What would you wanna make a change to? 

[00:13:55] Sonya Mehta: So this might be surprising, but I would actually change the world from relying on anything derived from animals. So I would change the world into a plant-based world in food, clothing, entertainment, I would say let the animals be free. Let them do what they want, and I would love that. It would be a really, it would be really liberating for them to be able to live in the world that they share with us. 

[00:14:19] Louis Goodman: I have a couple of more questions for you a little later on, but right now I would like to open up the podcast to the other guests who are here with us today and i'm gonna call on a few people to have a question or a comment for Sonya. So let me start with Brianna Jackson. Can you unmute and maybe unmute your video as well? We can see and hear you. Thank you. 

[00:14:46] Brianna Jackson: Yes. Hi. Thank you for having this guest and this podcast. I love tuning in when I can. Your journey resonates with me.

I just graduated law school and it sounds like you've really been able to build from that community organizing into using the law as a tool. And I'm curious to hear about for folks inspired by that model in the current political moment and what we're facing coming up, what would you say are the essential skills or mindset or sounds like your self-care practice is really great that we're gonna need to move into this next phase of advocacy.

[00:15:27] Sonya Mehta: Yeah, it's so hard right now. It's so hard. And I think we have to be kind to ourselves because we're going through psychological warfare, psychological and physical warfare. So be nice to yourselves. And I think for me, I try to take the long view that hey, this is a long time and we're just one in a long line of people who fought for justice.

And I think as a lawyer, the way I think about this is, be the best lawyer I can be. Be organized, have my evidence together, know the evidence better than the other side. Don't be scared, right? We're coming from a place, we're coming from a place that there could be a beautiful world and, and we're trying to build it.

And that's a noble thing. So hold onto that and keep up, keep up the fight. Don't leave, don't do something else. Keep trying. 

[00:16:21] Louis Goodman: Thanks Brianna. How about Chris Smith? Can you unmute and join us? 

[00:16:26] Shadeequa Smith: Hi Sonya, how are you? 

[00:16:28] Sonya Mehta: I'm, I'm well, thank you. 

[00:16:30] Shadeequa Smith: So I was wondering if you had any advice for a person like me. So my law trajectory was not direct. It wasn't go to college, go to law school, take the bar, become a lawyer. I went to law school when I was in my thirties. Graduated in 2011, didn't get a law license until 2023, and most of my work has been within the criminal justice system, but not obviously practicing law. And so I thought that my real world experience would be helpful as I got out to try to get connected into the legal community. And I found that it's not been easy. So I'm wondering if you have any advice or guidance for somebody who is similarly situated in terms of how to get a foot into the industry? 

[00:17:31] Sonya Mehta: Yeah. First of all, I think it's great that you're coming with so much experience and then that experience does show up as you practice.

It makes me think of a lot of people in labor law who came outta that industry, and so they know better than anyone how to represent those workers. I think it's who. I think for you personally, it's really great that you're here right now, going to ACBA events, going to the events and the sections of the practice that you want to do, and then following up with people because that's how I got my job.

I think we don't recognize enough how much it is who you know in this world, right. Oh yeah. 

[00:18:07] Shadeequa Smith: Thank you. I appreciate it. 

[00:18:10] Louis Goodman: Thank you. Thomas Butzbach, are you on the line? 

[00:18:13] Thomas Butzbach: I am on the line. Thank you. Hi Sonya. 

[00:18:17] Sonya Mehta: Hi. 

[00:18:18] Thomas Butzbach: I have a comment. I have a couple comments and a question. The comments are that first of all, you're a ball of energy.

You have a beautiful energy about you that I just love. My other comment is that if I were a big time employer, I'd be scared to death of you. My gosh. You come off, you come on so well and so strong and so passionate. I just think that's wonderful. My question is, going back to what you do for the ACBA. You're a board member. Can you just tell me two or three things that would be the most important task that it, that a Bar Association does for their group of members?

[00:19:02] Sonya Mehta: Yes, thank you so much for saying that. I just lost something against Trader Joe's. I had this big trademark case and I won at the district court level. Then the appellate court overturned me and I got that yesterday. So thank you so much for saying that. It feels really good and I appreciate that. I felt they are scared of me.

And so for the Bar Association, what we do is as a board member, I go to meetings and then I attend the sections that I've been assigned to, which is labor and employment and racial justice. And I'll just give you an example. Labor and employment is doing a great seminar and we're gonna have Temerinski and all these immigration lawyers and NLRB rep, national Labor Relations Board labor representatives.

So they've organized this conference, this day long conference that's gonna be touching all these different areas in the post-Trump era. So I think we do that. We do education through the MCLEs and things like that. I think we also provide support for each other. We have a wellness section. And I think it was Ms. Smith who was saying, who was talking about how do we meet people, how do you meet people where that you can find opportunities? So that's another good thing and the price is well worth it for what you get. 

[00:20:20] Thomas Butzbach: Very good. I have a follow up question if I could. Is communication between the Bar association and the bench important for a bar association?

[00:20:30] Sonya Mehta: That's such a great point. And I think the ACBA is gonna have an in-person meeting with the judges really soon and yes, it is. And so many of our judges in here in Alameda County are very close with the bar, very connected with the bar. So if you want to be a judge or you just wanna meet the judges, you have so many opportunities to do that.

[00:20:51] Thomas Butzbach: Thank you very much. 

[00:20:53] Sonya Mehta: Thank you. 

[00:20:53] Louis Goodman: Thanks Tom. Cyn Hernandez, are you on the line? 

[00:20:57] Cynthia Hernandez: You just told us how hard you worked, especially on that one, that the court of appeal just came in and my heart feels for you. I'm wondering, what kinda support do you get after losing a something like that? What happens? Do you, do friends invite you over to people to their houses?

And do they tell you that, do they tell you that those judges didn't know what they were doing? What do they do to support you when you work so hard and come up with a loss like that? 

[00:21:26] Sonya Mehta: I'm very lucky to have chosen this path of workers' rights and labor law, because I will say our community's really tight knit.

What we have, the California Employment Lawyers Association, which are the nicest people, we have a great listserv. Everybody helps each other and they're always ready to pick up the phone. And then in labor, we're under attack a lot, so we have our organizations, but I would say for this loss. One great source of support is gonna be the union members themselves, because it was a case Trader Joe's United, which is the nascent labor union that's forming and has had some victories.

But I think the union members have been really supportive in this whole thing because they're out there fighting these battles that are not filing papers and appearing in court, and they're getting fired. They are experiencing retaliation, and they're still so strong. They, this is such a real battle for them and it, and of course, as important as our work is trying to organize that work is one of the hardest things in the world to do as we've seen worldwide.

So that's really supportive. And then I have my co-counsel who we're talking about what we're gonna do, but I think that you raise such a good point because it's, I think it's really important for us lawyers doing social justice work to support each other in our wins and in our losses. One of the best panels I ever went to was the California Employment Lawyers Association, learning from our Losses. It was really brave for people to get up there and say, yes, I'm lost. And some, it seems to me, you learn more from your losses than your wins. So yeah, I appreciate your question and comment. 

[00:23:07] Louis Goodman: How about Michelle Kincaid? 

[00:23:10] Michelle Kincaid: You mentioned that for you, selecting cases is really important, and for me, I've worked a lot with HR doing some investigations just on the internal side. And what I see is that so often, like HR believes something has happened, they're looking into this, they, but when it comes to actually taking action against an aggressor, there's some element missing of what's going on. Like they, it's just hard to demonstrate an actual adverse employment action was taken, or if somebody's eventually laid off that it went back to some earlier complaint. What sort of criteria do you look for in your case selection? 

[00:23:45] Sonya Mehta: I think that's such a good point because so much of what happens at work is not illegal. It may I say this so many times, it's unfair, it's unjust, but it's not illegal. And we have long way. We have long way to go with workers' rights laws and California's at the forefront we're the best.

But if you look at other countries, we are in the dark ages. So what I look for is going back to those jury instructions. Can you meet the jury instructions? Can you meet the law behind it? Like you said, is there an adverse act or is it, and is there evidence of racial or other kind of animus toward the protected category?

Because how many times? How many times have I said, your jerk, your boss can be a jerk? And that's legal. What kind of jerk is he? A sueable jerk. And people really think it's funny because people really think they have a lot more rights than they do. I don't know where they got that idea, but unfortunately we're not there.

So that's how I pick my cases. I look at whether I can actually fulfill the jury instructions. And I look at damages too. I don't wanna drive someone through two years, 'cause it's gonna take two years, unless they settle. And since I do a lot of, since I sue public agencies, they don't settle. They don't settle.

You can, if you want a trial, then sue a government agency. Right? So basically, I look at damages because I don't wanna drag anyone through it, because that's two years of the employer telling you, you're lazy, you're stupid, you're mean, you're dishonest. All this horrible stuff that I would hate to hear about myself.

And of course, I don't wanna spend time and resources on something that's not going to be profitable for everyone in the end. But sometimes the situation is so bad that damages don't matter, particularly, or not, don't matter. Let me say it. For example, sexual harassment cases where you don't have a, it's, there's no retaliation.

You don't have a termination at the end or something. But this, the context, the situation is so bad that it's worth it to the client to take it to a jury. So that's how I think about my cases. 

[00:25:50] Em Feder Cooper: Thank you 

[00:25:50] Louis Goodman: Em Feder Cooper. 

[00:25:53] Em Feder Cooper: Hey there. Can you hear me? 

[00:25:55] Louis Goodman: We can hear you loud and clear. 

[00:25:57] Em Feder Cooper: Fantastic. So nice to, I actually think I met you at Aack event a couple of months ago.

Really awesome to see you again and to get to hear more about your work. I too have an interest in the political, I am a Cal, obviously a California attorney, but I also have an interest in the political, the community organizing and the legal. And I was wondering if you saw a community organizing or political future.

So starting in the organizing space, approaching it from the law space and maybe getting back into, or figuring out a different path with that other space that, as you had mentioned, is probably where more of the change making is coming from. 

[00:26:37] Sonya Mehta: It's really nice to see you. Yes, we have met. So great to see you.

So first I wanna say, any woman who wants, who has these kind of social justice politics, I really hope that she runs. I really, 'cause I just can't believe how unbalanced things are. Women need to speak up and take power and fight back because it's depressing how we're being treated. It's, you know, we're really valuable.

So that makes me mad. But I have to say, as far as political aspirations, I don't love doing all the events, raising the money and all that, but I do behind the scenes, I definitely donate and support candidates and then I do my best to support the activists. So in addition to employment law, I defend protesters and animal rights activists and other kinds of union organizers and all that kind of thing.

I do have a pretty healthy pro bono side. And then I try to do more political work, but it's been tough. It's been really tough. Try to keep it balanced because you can't do the work. If you're burnt out, how can you do it? Well, I also try and yes, I'm try and support all the causes I can I hope you run. Please run for office. 

[00:27:53] Em Feder Cooper: I'm gonna start with running for the wlac board or step one as a relatively new California transplant. Yes, thank you. 

[00:28:02] Louis Goodman: Is Maria Dominguez on the line? 

[00:28:05] Maria Dominguez: Hi everyone. Yes, this is Maria Dominguez. I'm the president of the East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association. I had the pleasure of meeting Sonya when I was still a law student, and I believe it was through a National Lawyers Guild event, probably with the United of People of Color Caucus, Tupac.

And my question to Sonya is. Tell us a little bit about your involvement with NLG and rest in power to the awesome. 

[00:28:36] Sonya Mehta: Yes. Oh my gosh, it's so nice to see you, Maria. Maria's one of the greatest people in the bar. I think she's an awesome organizer organizing the Unity bar at East Bay La Raza, and I'm so honored to know Maria just personally, professionally.

And so the question is, National Lawyers Guild is such an important organization and I have to say that, one of the attorneys at my firm, Emily Rose Johns, she's the president of National Lawyers Guild right now, and they're doing amazing work of, again, defending protesters, defending college students.

And gosh, they do so much. They do prisoner work and the gamut is incredible. And I think they really need money too, because they really are doing that front lines work. I think in the situation right now we have to defend our street protestors, what is happening with ICE and that for show. And what the Supreme Court just decided yesterday is it's not in line with our country's real values and it's not in line with justice and freedom and for all the faults of this country and how it arose, I really loved what it's supposed to stand for, a diverse community where we can all come and make our way on a meritocracy. And I think NLG is doing that front lines work. And Dan Siegel is an exact, that's exactly what he was. Dan Segal was an incredible trial attorney and he took on these cases, unpopular cases, cases, sometimes even fighting against racism in labor unions, things that are difficult to take on.

And he taught me so much. He taught me so many trial secrets and strategies and litigation tactics, and I'll really forever be grateful to him, and I know there's so many people who are grateful to him. 

[00:30:26] Louis Goodman: I have a couple of other questions for you, Sonya. First of all, how do we get in touch with you? If someone is interested in getting in touch with you or your firm to ask a question?

An attorney might wanna refer a case to you or someone who's listening to this and has some question about your firm. What's the best way to get in touch with you, Sonya Mehta? 

[00:30:52] Sonya Mehta: Yeah, you can go to my website. It's www.siegelyee S I E G E L Y E E .com, and there's a contact box, or you can call my office. 

[00:31:05] Louis Goodman: And if we were to Google Sonya Mehta, M-E-H-T-A attorney in Oakland, we've come up with you, I imagine.

[00:31:14] Sonya Mehta: You'll find me, you'll find my LinkedIn profile and you can message me directly there. 

[00:31:20] Louis Goodman: Great. Thank you. Sonya, is there anything that you wanted to bring up, anything at all that, that we haven't touched on in this conversation that you think was important to discuss, that you'd like to bring up? 

[00:31:31] Sonya Mehta: I thought this was an awesome conversation, a wonderful conversation, and I really appreciate you, Louis, for doing this.

I would say I just wanna speak for a moment about my organizing history. So, I was an organizer at Young Workers United, which was a brand new concept of this, these worker centers, so they're not labor unions, but they're community centers that organize workers. And I think it's an interesting concept I want people to know about, because there's quite a few of them now.

Some of them include the day laborers centers, Chinese Progressive Association has one and, and I think it was a very formative experience for me. Because I always think that when I went out and organized people to join this group, and the idea of the group was anywhere we saw injustice at work, we would all go together, no matter where you worked or whether you were at school or whatever, we'd all go and we would put up a picket line, like an informational picket line, and we'd hand out flyers and let everybody know what was happening.

And so we did that direct action work, which I think not only helped the people who were suffering at the work site, but also developed all this leadership. And then we were also able to do political work, like we did a ballot initiative for paid sick days. This is one of my greatest accomplishments in life, is we passed the first paid sick days bill in the country, and then that went on to be passed in other places.

And so whenever, I think whenever I get a little hopeless or disheartened, which is easy right now. I hope that all of us do this. To think back and think of all that you've done, and not just that victory, but all how many people that affected and how your work continues to radiate out, and it will continue on even after you pass on, right?

Like I am, I will continue to carry Dan's legacy and message and all the people that I organized and changed their lives, they'll continue to do that too. 

[00:33:29] Louis Goodman: Sonya Mehta, thank you so much for joining us today on the Love Thy Lawyer and Alameda County Bar Association podcast. I also wanna thank everyone else who joined us and asked such probing and interesting questions.

Thank you so much for joining us. It really makes the podcast when we have other people coming on, so thank you so much for being here. And again, Sonya, thanks for being here and thanks for your work with the Alameda County Bar Association. 

[00:34:00] Sonya Mehta: And thank you to all the siblings who asked questions and to everybody listening and for this opportunity, I really appreciate it.

[00:34:07] Louis Goodman: That's it for today's edition of Love Thy Lawyer in collaboration with the Alameda County Bar Association. Please visit the lovethylawyer.com website where you can find links to all of our episodes. Also please visit the Alameda County Bar Association website at acbanet.org where you can find more information about our support of the legal profession, promoting excellence in the legal profession and facilitating equal access to justice.

Thanks to Joel Katz for music, Brian Matheson for technical support, Paul Robert for social media, and Tracy Harvey. I'm Louis Goodman.

[00:34:57] Sonya Mehta: I came home, I missed the Bay Area so much, and I dragged my husband back to, he's from the Bay Area too, and he loved New York, but I wanted to come home.