Yaman is the founder of Salahi PC. He represents workers, consumers, and others who have been harmed by corporate or government misconduct. Driven by a desire to effectuate impactful change, Yaman has broad-ranging experience with antitrust, consumer protection, civil rights, and administrative law issues, including in complex class action proceedings and multi-district litigation. Before founding Salahi PC, Yaman was a partner at two powerhouse plaintiff-side class action firms, worked as a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus and the ACLU of Southern California, and clerked for the Honorable Edward M. Chen. Yaman graduated from Yale Law School and UC Berkeley.
E-mail: yaman@salahilaw.com
Phone: 415-236-2352
- Bail Bond Co-signer Litigation. Yaman obtained a $4.5 million settlement on behalf of a class of California co-signers of bail bonds who alleged they were not provided legally-required notices. The case is Abeyta v. DMCG, Inc., No. 3:22-cv-07089-SI (N.D. Cal.). The settlement is pending court approval.
- CARES Act Stimulus Payments for Incarcerated People. At a prior law firm, Yaman devised the legal strategy, researched the legal theories, and briefed all merits motions challenging the IRS’s denial of COVID-19 stimulus relief under the CARES Act to people in prison. Yaman was the lead author of the winning motion for class certification, preliminary injunction, and summary judgment, which resulted in over $465 million in cash assistance to over 385,000 people living in prison, and prevented the IRS from recouping over $1 billion it had already issued. Yaman also authored a successful opposition to the IRS’s attempt in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the district court’s rulings pending appeal. The case is Scholl v. Mnuchin, 20-cv-5309-PJH (N.D. Cal.).
- No-Poach Antitrust Litigation. At a prior law firm, Yaman was part of the litigation team that obtained a $54.5 million settlement for medical professors and $19 million for other faculty at Duke University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and $48.95 million for railway industry workers. The workers alleged that their employers had entered into unlawful no-poach agreements with one another in an effort to keep compensation lower than it otherwise would have been. Additionally, in a case brought on behalf of fast-food workers, Yaman successfully briefed and argued an appeal establishing that franchisors are capable of conspiring with their franchisees under the antitrust laws. The case is Arrington v. Burger King Worldwide, Inc., 47 F. 4th 1247 (11th Cir. 2022).
- Roblox Class Action Settlement. At a prior law firm, Yaman was part of the litigation team that obtained a settlement valued at $10 million on behalf of Roblox users who alleged that Roblox deleted virtual items from their accounts without refunding them the amounts that they had paid. The case is Doe v. Roblox Corp., No. 3:21-cv-03943-WHO (N.D. Cal).
- Automatic Renewal Fees. At a prior law firm, Yaman was part of the litigation team that obtained a $1.59 million settlement on behalf of consumers who alleged they were charged automatic monthly fees without their consent, a recovery that represented nearly 40% of the amounts they paid. The case is Burzdak v. Universal Screen Arts, Inc., No. 3:21-cv-02148-EMC (N.D. Cal.).
- Antitrust & Unfair Competition
- Civil Rights & Civil Liberties
- Consumer Protection
- Employment
- Business Disputes
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyers, 2021-2024.
- Rising Star, Northern California, SuperLawyers 2021-2023, and Selected to SuperLawyers, 2024.
- Outstanding Private Antitrust Litigation Achievement, American Antitrust Institute, 2017 & 2019.
- Kathi Pugh Award for Exceptional Mentorship, U.C. Berkeley School of Law, 2015.
- Yale Law School (J.D., 2012)
- U.C. Berkeley (B.A., Rhetoric, 2009)
- Honorable Edward M. Chen (N.D. Cal.)
- Recent Trends in Employee Privacy Litigation, American Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Conference (Nov. 9, 2023)
- No Poach Agreements, Florida Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Section, Dec. 8, 2021, Co-Presented with U.S. Department of Justice Attorney James J. Fredricks.
- Covid-19 Issues in Employment Law, Panelist on Practicing Law Institute’s Employment Conference September 2020.
- Employment Law in the COVID Era, June 3, 2020, Panelist for Berkeley Law Summer Speaker Series.
- Co-Author, with Dean M. Harvey, Comments of the Antitrust Law Section of the ABA in Connection with the FTC Workshop on “Non-Competes in the Workplace: Examining Antitrust and Consumer Protection Issues,” April 2020.
- Yaman Salahi & Nasrina Bargzie, Talking Israel & Palestine on Campus: How the U.S. Department of Education Can Uphold the Civil Rights Act and the First Amendment, 12 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 155 (2015).
- Co-Chair, N.D. Cal. Federal Bar Association Class Action Symposium (2024)
- Board Member, Asian Law Caucus (2018-present)
- ABA Employment Law Section Practice & Professionalism Track Co-Chair (2021-2022)
- Commissioner, Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission (2017)
- Los Angeles Times, Immigrants Sue ICE for Spying on their Financial Records, Dec. 13, 2022.
- Bloomberg Law, Competition Authority Gives FTC New Tool on Gig Worker Policies, Oct. 3, 2022.
- KQED, Bail Bonds Companies Failed to Reveal Full Consequences of Co-Signing, Lawsuits Say, Mar. 25, 2022.
- KQED, Incarcerated Californians Are Still Struggling to Collect Their Stimulus Payments, Dec. 15, 2021.
- NPR, Stimulus Debit Cards Unusable for Prison Inmates in At Least Four States, Feb. 6, 2021.
- Forbes, Prisoners Eligible for $600 Stimulus Checks; Stimulus Bill Language Doesn’t Exclude Them, Jan. 6, 2021.
- Forbes, IRS Must Pay $100 Million Worth of $1,200 Stimulus Checks, Judge Orders in Prisoners’ Lawsuit, Oct. 5, 2020.
- SF Chronicle, Formerly interned Japanese Americans stand up against Muslim hate, Dec. 22, 2015.
- NY Times, Yemeni-Americans, Thrust Into Limbo, Say U.S. Embassy Unfairly Revokes Passports, May 27, 2015.
- SF Chronicle, S.F. man says U.S. fraudulently kept him from leaving Yemen, Apr. 20, 2015.
- SF Chronicle, FBI reports show widespread domestic surveillance, Sep. 19, 2013
- California
- District of Columbia
- N.D. Cal., C.D. Cal., S.D. Cal., N.D. Ill., E.D. Mich., D.D.C.
- 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th 10th, 11th, and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal
- Arabic
- Spanish