Kimberly A. Kralowec is an accomplished class action litigator and appellate attorney. She served as lead appellate counsel in two landmark wage and hour class action cases in the California Supreme Court, Frlekin v. Apple Inc., 8 Cal.5th 1038 (2020) and Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (Hohnbaum), 53 Cal.4th 1004 (2012). During her 30-year career as a litigator, she has deftly handled dozens of wage and hour, antitrust, consumer, and civil rights class actions, recovering many millions of dollars in damages and restitution for her clients.

In recognition of her accomplishments as an appellate lawyer and litigator, Ms. Kralowec has received many accolades, including the 2022 Pound Civil Justice Institute Appellate Advocacy Award, with High Distinction, and the 2013 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award in Employment Law. The Daily Journal has named her one of the Top Labor & Employment Lawyers in California, one of the Top Woman Lawyers in California, and one of the Top Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in California. She has been designated a “Northern California Super Lawyer” every year since 2011.

Ms. Kralowec publishes and lectures widely. From 2003 through the present, Ms. Kralowec’s foremost publication has been The UCL Practitioner, one of the first law blogs ever created. The UCL Practitioner covers California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), and class action practice in California and the Ninth Circuit. The blog is regularly referred to as a resource by practicing lawyers, judges, and research attorneys.

Ms. Kralowec is an active participant in the amicus curiae work of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) and Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC). She co-authorized the joint amicus curiae brief of CELA and CAOC in Troester v. Starbucks Corp., 5 Cal.5th 829 (2018), in which the California Supreme Court rejected a so-called “de minimis” defense to compensable “hours worked.” For five years, Ms. Kralowec was a member of the Executive Committee of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section of the State Bar of California, serving in many roles including as Vice Chair of the Committee.

Ms. Kralowec received her J.D. in 1992 from the University of California, Davis, School of Law, and her B.A. in 1989 from Pomona College in Claremont, California. In 1992–1993, she served as a judicial clerk for Judge David Mannheimer of the Alaska Court of Appeals. Ms. Kralowec is admitted to practice in California, all federal district courts in California, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth, Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court.

In her spare time, Ms. Kralowec has become a published poet. Her two poetry collections are The Saplings Think of Us as Young (Kelson Books 2023) and We retreat into the stillness of our own bones (Tolsun Books 2022). To sign up for her poetry newsletter, click here.