Darci Burrell
Darci Burrell’s dedication to advancing the rights of society’s less powerful is equaled only by her devotion to the rule of law. An unyielding advocate for her clients, Ms. Burrell’s innovative legal work has expanded the bounds of civil rights law.
Darci is a founding partner of Burrell Kagin Law. In the fourteen years prior to that, she was a partner with Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams LLP, where she successfully litigated and tried cases on behalf of women subjected to gender discrimination and sexual harassment, people subjected to racial discrimination and harassment, people with disabilities, whistleblowers, tradeswomen and other women in non-traditional employment, and others, against both corporations and public entities.
Darci has practiced civil rights and public interest law since she graduated from UCLA Law School in 1995, beginning with a year serving as the Ruth Chance Law Fellow with Equal Rights Advocates, a women’s employment law center in San Francisco. In that position, Darci represented women and girls in cases involving sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. She also advocated on behalf of women in non-traditional employment, including tradeswomen and fire fighters.
Darci then joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Los Angeles as a staff attorney, litigating class action lawsuits on behalf of, among others, female police officers, African American probation officers, and residents of a largely-Latino neighborhood fighting a new freeway extension.
Darci returned to the Bay Area in 1998 to serve as a Civil Rights Attorney with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, enforcing laws against discrimination in education on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, gender and disability. Two years later, she joined Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian as a civil litigator involved in a variety of employment discrimination and wage and hour class action lawsuits. She then moved to Boxer & Gerson’s employment practice group as a Senior Associate.
Darci speaks regularly on employment issues throughout the country. Since 2019, she has also been a Contributing Editor for the Rutter Group’s California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation. Since 2020, she also participated in projects for the Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), recording webinars, and creating or editing sample briefs, complaints, and strategic guides for California employment lawyers. In 2020 and 2021, she served as a subject matter expert for the California Democratic Party’s “A Way Forward” Working Group, designed to revamp the Party’s sexual harassment complaint policies and procedures.
Darci is a member of the California Employment Lawyers Association, a statewide association of over 1200 attorneys who represent workers in California. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Housing & Economic Rights Advocates, a California statewide nonprofit dedicated to helping Californians build a safe, sound financial future, free of discrimination and economic abuses, in all aspects of household financial concerns. She also serves on the Executive Committees for the Alameda County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment and Wellness Committees.
Outside the office, Darci immerses herself in everything the East Bay has to offer, particularly outdoor adventures and popular culture. She is a regular at many Oakland gathering spots, and a reliable source for the best tips on Oakland’s vibrant local food and music scene.
-B.A., University of California, San Diego 1991
-J.D., University of California, Los Angeles 1995
Rebecca Kagin
Creating a personalized, client-focused experience is Rebecca’s passion, as she deeply resonates with the challenges her clients face and believes in strongly advocating for them to meet their goals.
Rebecca is dedicated to supporting workers in achieving justice in a wide variety of workplace disputes — including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, negotiation of severance agreements and reasonable accommodation guidance to help employees with disabilities keep their jobs. Rebecca honed her skills working with legendary Bay Area women litigators, including all of the former partners of Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams to develop a guiding compass where the client always comes first. Rebecca served as Of Counsel to LVBH for three years prior to forming Burrell Kagin Law as well as running her own solo practice out of Sonoma County for over a decade.
Earlier in her career, Rebecca advocated for employees in Seattle, Washington, during law school, by representing workers in unemployment appeals at the Unemployment Law Project, nuclear whistleblowers at the Government Accountability Project, and a shareholder whistleblower at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Rebecca was a creative and effective job placement specialist at Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, Jobs for Homeless Consortium in Oakland (as a VISTA Volunteer), and West County Community Services, in Sebastopol placing refugees, formerly incarcerated, immigrants, youth, and other at risk populations in jobs and internships. These formative experiences solidified what has become Rebecca’s lifelong passion to advocate for workers.
Rebecca is committed to supporting the legal community and the workers of California through the advocacy work of the California Employment Lawyers Association. Rebecca serves on the Board of the organization, is a Co-Chair of the Mentor Committee, and is a Racial Justice Committee member. She also makes sure to attend Lobby Day every year to work to strengthen the laws protecting California workers.
She also enjoys collaborating with non-profits including Legal Aid of Sonoma County, Legal Aid at Work, and Equal Rights Advocates to further advocate for employees and others.
When she’s not practicing law Rebecca is gardening, spending time with family and friends, serving as a Board member of Petaluma Educational Foundation, traveling, hiking, camping, reading, and cooking.
-B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz, 1996
-Study Abroad: Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 1994-1995
-J.D. from Seattle University School of Law, 2004
Awards + Associations
