The MTLA’s mission is to promote professionalism and civility in the legal profession, improve local bench-bar relations, educate, protect the right to jury trials, and promote fair and equal access to justice for all, regardless of wealth or power.
MTLA Board Members
Jeannette Vaccaro
Co-President
315 Montgomery Street, 10th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
Jeannette A. Vaccaro represents employees exclusively in matters involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblowing, and wrongful termination. She is also serves as a volunteer mediator for the California Civil Rights Division (formerly DFEH), as well as the Marin County Superior Court ADR Program. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with honors, Jeannette worked in business for almost a decade before graduating magna cum laude from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She began her legal career representing employees in state and federal court in Oregon, until she returned to California in 2012. From 2015 to 2019, Jeannette was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star, and was selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer every year since 2021. Jeannette was also named one of the Top Women Lawyers in Northern California each of those years. In addition to being the immediate past-President and current co-President of Marin Trial Lawyers Association (MTLA), Jeannette volunteers as a supervising attorney for the ELA Institute for Law and Policy, and the Marin County Law Library’s Lawyers in the Library program. She is principal of the Law Office of Jeannette A. Vaccaro in San Francisco, California.
Michael E. Hale, Esq
Co-President
235 Montgomery St., Ste. 854
San Francisco, CA 94104
Michael E. Hale is a fourth generation San Franciscan, third generation San Francisco attorney and third generation alumni of the University of San Francisco School of Law. He also graduated with Honors from the University of California in Santa Barbara in 2001. While attending USF Law School, Mr. Hale received the CALI Award for Academic Excellence in Real Estate (Sales) Transactions, was a Staff Member of the Intellectual Property Law Bulletin, General Member of the Business Law Association and a participant in the USF Intensive Advocacy Program. Mr. Hale was admitted to the California State Bar in 2006 and is licensed to practice in all California State Courts as well as the United States District Court of Northern California. Mr. Hale has practiced as a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer his entire career and has also worked with commercial tenants assisting with lease negotiations. In 2013 and 2014, Mr. Hale was honored with the designation of California Super Lawyer Rising Star. He also published an article in 2012 for Plaintiff magazine entitled, Sexual Torts and Vicarious Liability: Expanding Mary M. into the Private Sector.
Daniel Rossi
Vice President
299 4th St., Ste. 202
San Rafael, CA 94901-3028
Daniel Rossi is passionate about representing all injury victims. He focuses exclusively on personal injury cases, including: Motor vehicle accidents (automobile, truck, bus, motorcycle or bicycle), wrongful death, pedestrian accidents, slip and fall, defective product injuries and animal bites or attacks. Daniel began his law career interning at the Nassau County Department of Social Services and the Nassau County Attorney’s Office in New York, while working his way through Hofstra University School of Law. While interning at the County Attorney’s office, he recognized that many injury victims needed the help of a zealous legal advocate in order to get a fair result. After completing law school in 2012, Daniel immediately took a position with a plaintiff’s personal injury law firm in Sacramento, where he knew his advocacy was most needed. He then moved to Florida, continuing to fight for injury victims alongside experienced trial attorneys, before moving to the Bay Area in early 2015. Daniel brings a sense of justice and determination to every client he represents. Daniel is fluent in both English and Spanish. His Spanish-speaking clients appreciate that he can fully explain the details of their case, as he fights for an equitable result.
Fred Anderson is the senior partner in Anderson & Anderson. He graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in economics and Vanderbilt Law School with a JD degree. He was a prosecutor in the Orange County District Attorney’s office for two years before he started his own law firm. Fred practiced primarily in Orange County but has tried cases from San Diego to Boise, Idaho, and Mt Vernon, Washington. He was admitted to practice in Oregon in 2005 and Washington in 2007. He practiced in Hillsboro, Oregon, from 2006 to 2018 and then returned to California. He has tried over 100 jury trials, numerous court trials, including twelve elder abuse cases, and several probate will and trust contests. His published opinions include People v. Koury (1989) 214 Cal App 3d 676, People v. Neer (1986) 177 Cal App 3d 991, and California v. Acevedo (1991) 500 US 565. These were all Fourth Amendment search and seizure cases. Fred is active in the Novato Rotary, and his hobbies include USMS competitive swimming and photography.
Ms. Carrera is a bilingual attorney, workplace investigator, trainer, and DEI consultant at Carrera Workplace Solutions. Ms. Carrera conducts workplace investigations for both public and private employers in response to employee complaints of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, bullying, and other alleged employee misconduct. Ms. Carrera also provides diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and harassment prevention trainings and consultations for corporations, government agencies and individuals, in both English and Spanish. She holds a certificate from the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI) and is an active member. She also holds a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. Prior to becoming an investigator and trainer, Ms. Carrera was a Plaintiffs’ side employment law litigator at Villegas Carrera, Inc. This uniquely qualifies her to determine risk and see where employers are vulnerable to being sued by employees. Before Villegas Carrera, Ms. Carrera was a Deputy City Attorney and litigator with the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where she filed lawsuits against property owners who violated San Francisco’s housing, health, fire, and police codes. Ms. Carrera also formerly worked as the supervising attorney at Legal Aid of Marin and La Raza Centro Legal where she litigated employment and housing cases, and managed a diverse staff, including volunteers. She facilitated community outreach meetings with the Latino community and services agencies and conducted bilingual trainings and drafted Spanish and English self-help manuals. Ms. Carrera is a 1992 graduate of the University of California College of the Law San Francisco (formerly U.C. Hastings) and has practiced law for 29 years.
Jennifer Schwartz is a partner at Outten & Golden LLP and heads the individual practice in the San Francisco office. She represents employees exclusively in a wide range of employment matters, including litigation in state and federal trial courts, before administrative agencies, in appellate courts and in arbitration. Her practice also includes a variety of professional and executive compensation matters, including the negotiation of employment, equity, severance, separation, restrictive covenant, and trade secret agreements. She has significant experience representing founder/employees who find themselves in disputes with their own companies. Much of Ms. Schwartz’s employment practice focuses on claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and violation of state and federal wage and hour laws. She represents whistleblowers and individuals who have experienced adverse employment action as a result of opposing illegal or unethical corporate practices. Ms. Schwartz has been repeatedly nominated by her peers as a Super Lawyer, a Best Lawyer and has been named a Top Woman Attorney in Northern California. She serves on the Board of Equal Rights Advocates and the Marin Trial Lawyers’ Association. She is currently Co-Chair of the Labor & Employment section of the Marin County Bar Association. She serves as a FINRA arbitrator. Ms. Schwartz is a graduate of Yale University and N.Y.U. School of Law, having completed her third year at Stanford School of Law. Ms. Schwartz recognizes the importance of pre-litigation resolution and is proud of the dozens of matters in which she has achieved successful resolution of pre- and post-employment conflicts short of litigation using a collaborative approach with her clients and their employers.
Patrice Goldman
Board member
101 Lucas Valley Rd., #264
San Rafael, CA 94903
Pat Goldman has represented employees in employment law matters for more than twenty-three years. Since opening her own practice in San Rafael in January of 2011, she has also acted as a mediator on employment law cases. She has won verdicts in cases involving fundamental employment rights including wrongful termination in violation of public policy, and illegal wage and hour practices. Ms. Goldman has also written and spoken on employment law issues and has served as a contributing editor on the National Employment Discriminations Law treatise and the Rutter Group’s California Practice Guide on Employment Litigation, where, between 2011 and 2013, she served as Principal Contributing Editor. Ms. Goldman is the co-chair of the Bay Area Cabal/Plaintiff’s Employment Lawyers Association, and a member of the California Employment Lawyers Association (where she serves on the Diversity Committee), Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, and the Marin County Bar Association. She has held an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell since 1999, and been listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics Magazine and San Francisco Magazine for more than ten years.
Zoe R. DeGeer
Board member
351 California St, # 700
San Francisco, CA 94104
Zoë DeGeer is Senior Litigation Counsel at Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP where she exclusively represents employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, medical leave and breach of contract actions, as well as severance negotiations. Prior to joining the firm in 2020, Ms. DeGeer worked as an associate at Dickson Geesman LLP and Outten & Golden LLP. Ms. DeGeer graduated from Golden Gate University School of Law in 2014 with honors and certifications in litigation and public interest law. In law school, Ms. DeGeer was heavily involved in the litigation department and mock trial program. Her mock trial team won the regional American Bar Association Labor and Employment Mock Trial Competition and was a semi-finalist in the national competition. She worked in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office as a Law Clerk for two years in the sexual assault, child assault, domestic violence, misdemeanor, and law and motion units. Ms. DeGeer also worked as a judicial extern for the Honorable Cynthia Ming-mei Lee and the Appellate Department of the San Francisco Superior Court. Ms. DeGeer is Employee Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section’s Membership Retention and Trial Advocacy Committees and a member of the California Employment Lawyers Association and National Employment Lawyers Association. She is a graduate of the American Bar Association’s Leadership Development Program.