Non-Profit Organizations
Freedom House
Ricky has become the attorney for Freedom House, a non-profit organization devoted to helping individuals with traumatic brain injuries; asisting the organization with California corporate compliance, and both State and Federal tax exempt status compliance.
Class Action Cases
South Africa Apartheid
Zeldes & Haeggquist is proud to serve as class counsel in a South Africa Apartheid class action, filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of South African plaintiffs. The Complaint alleges that five multinational companies collaborated and acted purposefully with the South African government to commit human rights violations including apartheid, itself a crime against humanity. Other claims allege complicity in extrajudicial killings, torture, de-nationalization, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment during the apartheid regime. The companies named in the suit are Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays), Ford Motor Company (Ford), General Motors Corporation (GM), Daimler AG (Daimler) and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The case is moving forward, after the court denied Defendants' motions to dismiss in part in a 136-page order on April 8, 2009, and on September 3, 2009, the South African government withdrew its opposition to the case proceeding in the United States in the District of New York.
San Diego Welfare Applicants
Sanchez v. County of San Diego, 464 F.3d 916 (9th Cir. 2006), reh'g denied 483 F.3d 965, 966 (9th Cir. 2007). Amber Eck litigated a class action brought on behalf of welfare applicants seeking to enjoin the County's "Project 100%" program whereby investigators from the D.A.'s office (Public Assistance Fraud Division) enter and search the home of every person applying for welfare benefits. The case was reported in the Harvard Law Review, the New York Times, and was even the subject of a "Colbert Report" feature.
City of San Diego Disabled Rights
Badua v. City of San Diego, 296 F.3d 701 (9th Cir. 1999). Amber Eck represented class plaintiffs in an action alleging that the City's Long Term Disability ("LTD") plan violated the Americans With Disabilities Act ("ADA") because it provided substantially less coverage to individuals with mental disabilities, such as manic depression, than those with physical disabilities. Co-counsel Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund ("DREDF") described it as one of the most important cases of the year, and commended the "talent, effort and commitment" of Ms. Eck and the plaintiff team.
