BIOGRAPHY OF ELIZABETH J. ARLEO, ESQ.
Elizabeth J. Arleo received her law degree from the University of San Diego, School of Law, in 1998 and her Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University in 1993.
Since 1999, Ms. Arleo has been a member in good standing of the bar of the State of California. She is admitted as a member to the Southern, Central, Northern and Eastern District Courts for California. Ms. Arleo is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the Ramona Bar Association, and Lawyer’s Club of San Diego.
On January 3, 2005, Ms. Arleo opened her law office as a solo practice to represent persons in consumer rights litigation, both individual and class actions. From 1999 to 2004, she practiced law with Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach in San Diego, California where she was involved in the prosecution of consumer and securities fraud class actions. During law school, Ms. Arleo clerked at the United States Securities & Exchange Commission and Milberg Weiss where she co-authored The Aftermath of BMW v. Gore – Who is Now the Trier of Fact?, Financial Services Litigation, PLI (1997).

Since opening her office in 2005, Ms. Arleo has represented many consumers against creditors and debt collectors under the federal and California Fair Debt Collection Practices Acts.  She has filed consumer cases against Midland Credit Funding, NCO Financial Systems, Arrow Financial Services, Calvary Portfolio, Accounts Receivable Management, Household Finance, HSBC Bank, Wells Fargo and others.

 Ms. Arleo and her firm have been certified as class counsel in debt collection class actions including: Ellis v. West Coast Electronic Billing Services., Case No. 05-cv-1387 LAB (JMA) (class action settlement finally approved on April 10, 2006); Nutter v. NCO Fin. Systems, Inc., Case No. 04-cv-2266 DMS (RBB) (S.D. Cal.) (class action settlement finally approved April 21, 2006); Robinson v. NCO Fin. Systems, Inc., Case No. C 05-04006 CW (MEJ) (N.D. Cal.) (class action settlement preliminarily approved on August 28, 2006) and Gonzales v. Arrow Fin. Servs., LLC, 233 F.R.D. 577 (S.D. Cal. 2006) (granting Plaintiff’s motion for class certification). After winning liability on behalf of a class of 40,000 California consumers in the Gonzales v. Arrow Fin. Servs. class action lawsuit, Ms. Arleo and her co-counsel won damages of $225,000 at trial in October 2008.

Prior to opening her own office, Ms. Arleo was involved in the prosecution of numerous securities fraud class actions, including: Alaska Electrical Pension Fund v. Pharmacia Corp., Case No. 03-1519 (D.N.J); Anderton v. Clearone Communs, Inc., Master File No. 2:03-CV-0062-PGC (D. Utah); In re Catalina Mktg. Corp. Secs. Litig., Case No. 8:03-CV-1582-27 TBM (M.D. Fl.); In re Gemstar-TV Guide, Int’l Inc. Sec. Litig., Case No. CV 02-02775 MRP (PLAx) (C.D. Cal.); In re Healthsouth Corp. Sec. Litig., Master File No. CV-98-BE-2634-S (N.D. Ala.); In re Healthsouth Corp. Sec. Litig, Consolidated Case No. CV-03-BE-1500-S (N.D. Ala.); In re Immune Response Secs. Litig., Master File No. 01-CV-1237-J (JAH) (S.D. Cal.); and In re Lockheed Martin Corp. Secs. Litig., Case No. CV 99-00372 MRP (C.D. Cal.).

Ms. Arleo has also represented pension funds and individual shareholders in complex securities fraud actions in state courts located in California and elsewhere, including: AOL Time Warner Cases I & II, JCCP Nos. 4322 and 4325 (Cal. Sup. Ct., Los Angeles County), Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Ass’n v. Parsons, Case No. BC303050 (Cal. Sup. Ct., Los Angeles County); West Virginia Investment Mgmt. Bd. v. Richard D. Parsons, Case No. 03-1752 (W.V. Circuit Ct., Kanawha County); Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, v. Parsons, Case No. 03-07-7932 (Ohio Common Pleas Ct., Franklin County); and William Gonser, Derivatively on Behalf of DHB Industries, Inc. v. David H. Brooks and DHB Indus., Inc., Index No. 017380/02 (N.Y. Supreme Court, Nassau County) (shareholder derivative action).

Ms. Arleo is particularly proud to have served as one of plaintiffs’ counsel in three ground-breaking, related cases litigated on behalf of more than 30,000 Chinese garment workers against factories located in the U.S. territory, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and U.S. clothing retailers such as The Gap, Limited, Target and J.C. Penney entitled: Does I v. Advance Textile Corp, Case No. 99-0002 (D. Northern Mariana Islands); Does I v. The Gap, Inc., et al., Case No. 01-0031 (D. Northern Mariana Islands); and UNITE v. The Gap, Inc., Case No. 300474 (Cal. Superior Ct., San Francisco County). The lawsuits, one of which was a class action, challenged sweatshop conditions in Saipan garment factories by alleging, among other things, violations of the Alien Tort Claims Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the California Unfair Business Practices Act, and RICO. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, 27 clothing retailers and 28 Saipan-based factories paid $20 million in back wages and damages, created a repatriation fund so workers can return to their home countries, implemented for the factories a code of conduct that fully comports with independent American employment standards, and used workplace monitors to oversee operations and investigate worker complaints.

Ms. Arleo also represented plaintiffs on other consumer class actions and private attorney general actions brought under the California Unfair Business Practices Act, including: Schwartz v. The Upper Deck Co., 96 CV 3408-B (AJB) (S.D. Cal.); Chaset v. The Upper Deck Co., Case No. 830257-9 (Calif. Superior Ct., Alameda County); and Benson v. Kwikset, Case No.01275 (Calif. Superior Ct., Orange County).