Medina McKelvey helped us quickly resolve several wage and hour actions on short notice and then helped our HR team improve our policies and practices to prevent lawsuits in the future. Their team was knowledgeable, responsive, and efficient, and they did a great job of collaborating with our business.
– CEO of Northern California Credit Union
The value we deliver every time starts at the same point: You. We want you to walk away from any lawsuit or legal challenge stronger, wiser, and better protected. We want to see your business thrive before, during, and after any legal dilemma.
It’s all about you. Not us.
Our firm was started for you, built for you, and is devoted to serving you. We listen to our clients and adapt to them so that we can become the legal firm that their business needs.
Here are some of the ways we personalize our service:
Build
Our team of emotionally intelligent and highly experienced attorneys ensures the best representation of your interests
Establish
Our transparent structure facilitates personal accountability to you, the client, for the quality of our work and communication
Customize
Our approach fits the unique needs of your business through listening, collaborating, and providing solutions
Ideate
We develop creative (often novel) solutions in responding to employment-related disputes
Systematize
Our team creates and utilizes efficient systems for each stage of legal representation to maximize efficiency, reduce overall legal spend, and improve your experience and outcome
Limit
Each team member’s caseload is intentionally low to ensure that each lawyer gives his or her full time, attention, and creativity to your case.
We know the legal market is changing rapidly. We know because we listen to you. Through listening, we evolve. Medina McKelvey’s ongoing evolution is our promise and our commitment to consistent improvement allows us to stand firm in who we are and what we do, which is:
Make peaceful resolutions happen with collaboration, care, and trusted experience.
Our Attorneys and their Experience
Our team is comprised of business owners, entrepreneurs, military veterans, executive leaders, and former BigLaw partners who have served, trained, and represented thousands of businesses. With our combined and diverse experience, we are committed to helping you efficiently manage, resolve, and avoid costly lawsuits so that you can get back to running your business.
No endorsements contained on this website constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter.

Brandon McKelvey
The owner and I both agree that Brandon is the best attorney we have ever worked with and your firm was excellent at handling this wage and hour lawsuit.
– CEO of International Staffing Agency
Before launching Medina McKelvey LLP, Brandon McKelvey was a partner in the Labor & Employment Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP (a top-tier international employment law firm with over 700 attorneys) where he co-led the California Class Action Group, created a popular employment law blog, authored wage and hour and employment law treatises, and regularly spoke on California employment law topics.
Today, his practice is focused on offering clients business-centric solutions to high-stakes, complex employment lawsuits. He has represented hundreds of California businesses in employment lawsuits all over the state of California, with a focus on wage and hour class and PAGA actions. Brandon has counseled Fortune 500 companies, large privately held companies, public agencies, and medium and small businesses on California employment law compliance, with a focus on California’s wage and hour laws.
A strong advocate for client service and effective communication, Brandon has developed multiple tools to help clients quickly evaluate their cases, improve their legal compliance, and protect themselves from future lawsuits.
Expertise
- Wage and hour defense strategy, crisis management, counseling, and training
- Over 20 years of class action and PAGA experience
- Represented hundreds of California businesses in wage and hour lawsuits in every major California court in both federal and state courts of appeal
- Created a popular employment blog and training and accountability platform to assist employers with wage and hour compliance and lawsuit prevention
- Acts as a consultant, expert witness, and mediator in wage and hour cases
Education
- Wayne State University; magna cum laude
- University of California, Davis School of Law; Executive Editor of the Law Review
Committed to Community
In addition to being a member of various bar associations, Brandon is a tireless advocate for feeding the hungry and anti-trafficking. Brandon co-founded Lawyers vs. Hunger, which is a collaboration of multiple law firms that have banded together to help provide hundreds of thousands of meals to community members in need through local food banks. He and Medina McKelvey are also faithful supporters and pro bono counsel for AIM, a prominent anti-trafficking organization. And Brandon has been to Cambodia twice to help support their mission.

Alex Medina
Few lawyers anywhere can match Alex’s litigation skills. And he can flat-out write.
– David M. Levine; In-House Counsel, UC Davis Health System
Until starting a successful solo practice in January 2013 that grew into Medina McKelvey, Alex Medina spent nearly his entire career with large, international firms in Los Angeles and Sacramento — most recently DLA Piper.
He’s skilled at quickly immersing himself in the applicable law of a given case as well as at learning his clients’ particular business and industry. With nearly 20 years of litigation experience, he’s successfully represented some of the largest companies in California and the United States in multi-million dollar lawsuits. A skilled oral advocate, he’s quick on his feet, knows his way around a courtroom, and doesn’t lose his temper.
Alex has been happily married to his wife of more than 17 years. He’s also the proud dad of four ball-throwing, Lego-building, vegetable-avoiding boys.
Expertise
- Wage and Hour Defense, Employment Counselor, Crisis Manager
- Nearly 20 years of experience defending businesses in California
- Subject matter expert and speaker on employment law issues, including arbitration agreements
- Gifted communicator and writer
Education
- University of California, Berkeley; with honors
- Loyola Law School; Order of the Coif
Committed to Community
Alex loves to give his time and resources to numerous charitable and faith-based organizations that serve the disadvantaged locally, nationally, and around the world. He also holds and has held numerous leadership positions, including Past President of the Federal Bar Association, as attorney representative to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (which included planning the annual judicial conference for the Eastern District of California), and as a member of a merit selection panel for the Eastern District of California to select the next federal magistrate judge in Redding.
He also co-founded Lawyers vs. Hunger and has been involved in the following professional organizations:
- Christian Legal Society (local and national chapters)
- Federal Bar Association (local and national chapters)
- Asian Bar Association of Sacramento
- Sacramento County Bar Association
- Placer County Bar Association
- Roseville Chamber of Commerce
- Secretary and Board Member, Placer Rescue Mission
- Vice President, Placer County Sheriff’s Council

Tim Nelson
Tim involved me in every step of our wage and hour class and PAGA case and helped me understand the processes. We were very happy with the result and we would definitely recommend Tim and his team to other businesses facing these types of cases.
– Director of HR, California Multi-Location Equipment Dealership
One of the first cases that Tim Nelson worked on was a nationwide antitrust class action. From that moment, Tim found his calling as a class action litigator.
Tim Nelson has been practicing law in California for over 15 years with an emphasis on employment law, class and representative actions, and complex litigation. Before joining Medina McKelvey, he worked at two prominent national law firms, Kaye Scholer LLP and Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
At Medina McKelvey he focuses on wage and hour class and collective actions, employment defense litigation, and representative actions brought under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). He can quickly evaluate PAGA claims and provide guidance to employers on ways to efficiently defend, resolve, and prevent these extortion-style lawsuits.
Tim prides himself on understanding each client’s business and offering solutions that are best suited for the particular needs of the client. He learns businesses quickly to understand how employment laws and lawsuits impact the bottom line. He then works efficiently to develop the most economical and common-sense solution.
Tim loves spending time with his wife of more than 10 years and his son and daughter. He helps coach his son’s Little League team and is involved in his children’s school.
Expertise
- 15+ years of experience in wage and hour defense analysis and strategy, counseling, and training
- Specialized experience in analyzing class data and preparing potential exposure analyses
- Subject matter expert on a variety of class and PAGA issues
- Significant experience on both sides of representative and class action litigation
Education
- University of California, Irvine; magna cum laude, Honors program
- University of California Los Angeles School of Law
Committed to Community
Tim is very active in his community and loves to give back. He has helped organize annual days of community service in several local areas and loves to participate in service projects with his family. He has done pro bono work for the Placer Food Bank and is committed to using his legal skills to benefit his community.

Allison Hyatt
Allison has impressively delivered on challenging and emotionally charged cases. Her litigation experience and strategic negotiation skills have helped us through multiple complex employment disputes.
– Owner/President, Transportation Company
Allison has been a litigator for more than 20 years representing clients throughout California in a wide range of employment and complex business disputes. Her practice focuses on defending employers, in addition to individual managers and executives, facing lawsuits involving claims of employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, defamation, breach of contract, wage and hour violations, and wrongful termination. As an experienced trial lawyer, Allison has a unique perspective at the outset of litigation, enabling her to help businesses minimize exposure and resolve employment disputes in a cost-effective manner. When needed, she is ready to aggressively defend her clients through trial or arbitration.
Allison also regularly counsels and advises her clients regarding their employment practices, including reasonable accommodations and the interactive process, discrimination and harassment prevention, privacy issues, disciplinary actions, protection of trade secrets, and other personnel matters.
Expertise
- Over 20 years of complex litigation experience, including trials and appeals
- Specialized experience defending employers in both single plaintiff and class action employment lawsuits
- Effective pre-litigation employment counselor and crisis manager
- Skilled litigation strategist and settlement negotiator
Education
- University of California Los Angeles School of Law
- California State University, Long Beach; graduated summa cum laude
Committed to Community
Allison is active in her community, and, as a parent of a child with special needs, she regularly volunteers her time and legal expertise to advocate on behalf of students with disabilities and their families. She serves on the board of GraceCity, an organization devoted to combating human trafficking and supporting and restoring victims of human trafficking in the Northern California area.

Chantelle Egan
Chantelle is both a brilliant lawyer and an amazing, dynamic, charismatic leader with sky-high emotional IQ. Chantelle is savvy at identifying and mitigating legal risk while at the same time finding creative, innovative solutions that work within different company cultures.
– Vice President, Tech Company
Chantelle Egan offers a fresh approach to compliance and risk mitigation as the leader of Medina McKelvey’s advice and counsel practice group. Partnering with companies in all stages of their growth trajectory, Chantelle does not simply focus on the nuances of the law but rather integrates each company’s unique culture, values, and business needs into her practical assessments and advice. Her expertise extends throughout the entire employment life cycle from onboarding through termination, with expansive experience in performance management, harassment, discrimination, diversity and inclusion, workplace investigations, and pay equity. Chantelle is nimble, offering proactive guidance to help employers navigate often unexpected workplace employment issues and conflict.
Before joining Medina McKelvey, Chantelle worked at large international law firms and most recently was a partner at Seyfarth Shaw, co-chairing its workplace crisis response and investigations practice group. She continues her work at Medina McKelvey as a neutral third party investigator, in addition to providing internal workplace investigations and pre-litigation crisis management counseling. Chantelle has conducted countless investigations in a wide range of industries, ranging from tech start-ups to trucking, with many of the investigations involving senior executives and board members. Her expansive experience litigating the adequacy of investigations influences how she approaches investigations to ensure they are neutral, thorough, and defensible.
Chantelle started her professional life as an educator, who moonlighted as an off-off Broadway actor in New York. Even today, Chantelle brings those skills to her current practice, offering dynamic and interactive trainings and one-on-one coaching.
Education
- University of Pennsylvania Law School; Senior Editor on Journal of Constitutional Law
- University of California, Los Angeles
Committed to Community
Going back to her educator roots, Chantelle leads a San Francisco junior high mock trial club, which educates students about trial fundamentals and develops their advocacy skills over the course of a school year. Chantelle also provides California-compliant pro bono harassment trainings to Bay Area nonprofits through the San Francisco Bar Association’s Justice and Diversity Center (“JDC”). In 2020, JDC honored Chantelle with the CORP Crystal Award for Outstanding Volunteer of the Year.

Rabi David
Rabi is a highly experienced courtroom litigator who is not afraid to tackle the most complicated legal issues. He’s sharp, he’s super responsive, and he listens to his clients. He’s the attorney you want by your side when your back is against the wall.
– Deputy General Counsel, Financial Institution
For the last 10 years, Rabi has honed his litigation and investigation skills in a variety of areas ranging from complex commercial disputes, products liability, and securities and compliance. Rabi also worked as a United States Air Force Judge Advocate General, prosecuting criminal cases. In both the military and California courts, Rabi has tried cases to verdict, counseled numerous clients in adverse actions and employment issues, deposed witnesses, and managed multi-layered investigations of fraud, harassment, and securities violations. Before practicing law, Rabi served for eight years in the Air Force as a Special Operations Navigator and an RC-135 maintenance officer.
He now joins Medina McKelvey from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, one of the top law firms in the world. At Orrick, Rabi counseled clients from Fortune 100 companies, tech startups, and small businesses, shielding them from liability and negotiating many of their complex cases against regulatory agencies to favorable settlements. He uses this skill set to advise California businesses in the multifaceted nuances of the California Labor Code.
Expertise
- Former USAF navigator and JAG officer and attorney at one of the top law firms in the world
- 10 years of high-stakes complex litigation and trial experience in federal and state courts representing individual and corporate clients
- Accomplished in meticulously investigating and deciphering vast amounts of data into key issues that determine clients’ optimal strategy
- Skilled communicator and strategist grounded in 10 years of Air Force leadership and military justice, assisting clients through creative problem-solving and persuasive advocacy
Education
- Undergraduate degree from Tulane University
- Master’s degree with an emphasis in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma
- Pepperdine University School of Law
Committed to Community
Rabi became a lawyer to help others and offer counsel for those who are victims of the legal system. To that end, he has concentrated on pro bono efforts to assist homeless veterans seeking VA disability benefits, as well as improving legal resources in the fight against international human trafficking. Rabi regularly looks for opportunities to participate in Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and seeks to give back and serve within his community.

Doug Leach
Doug is one of the most capable people I have ever met. He has been, and will be, an asset to any organization lucky enough to have him.
– Los Angeles City Attorney/Butte County Deputy District Attorney
Doug Leach joined as a trusted and experienced Wage Hour/Support Counsel. He will be working to bring peace to California businesses through his mindful and caring approach to issues, cases, and most importantly, people.
Before pursuing law, Doug worked for 25 years as a business operations executive at Hewlett-Packard. At HP, he was responsible for building new organizations, growing them from the ground up and directing the integration of operational teams across more than a half dozen mergers and acquisitions.
After leaving his leadership role at one of the largest high-tech divestitures in history, Doug decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming an attorney.
Doug loves spending time with his wife of 30 years and their ever-growing family of six children and three grandchildren. Doug enjoys training for half marathons, landscaping, learning architectural design, and reading comic books. He is also an unashamed Cleveland Browns fan.
Expertise
- Wage/Hour Counsel and Director of Business Systems
- Over two decades of executive leadership and organizational design experience in Fortune 100 tech company
- Subject matter expert on people management, business operations, and organizational data
- Internationally recognized in negotiations and conflict resolution
- Currently serving on the SCBA Labor & Employment Executive Committee
Education
McGeorge School of Law; Negotiations Team
Committed to Community
Doug and his family are active in their community and in their church and have participated in nearly a dozen service trips to a rural farming village in northern Mexico to build houses and connect with the local community.
Doug enjoyed mentoring young leaders through HP’s Leadership Development program and by participating as an HP advisor to Global Health Corp Fellows.

Kyle Owen
Kyle has a sharp legal mind and gets right to the issues critical to deciding a case. He is a natural writer and oral advocate and will serve as a powerful ally to any client.
– Former judicial law clerk and associate at preeminent San Francisco litigation firm
Kyle’s journey to the practice of law began in the halls of justice. Before becoming an attorney, Kyle spent nearly 13 years in legal administration, 11 of those with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. At the District Court, Kyle held a variety of administrative positions, most notably as the Courtroom Deputy to Magistrate Judge Carolyn K. Delaney for nearly seven years.
During his time with the court, and while balancing his roles as husband and father of four, Kyle continued to pursue his educational goals, obtaining his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from William Jessup University and his law degree from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. While at McGeorge, Kyle was a member of the Traynor Honor Society, received a Witkin award for legal research and writing and served as a teaching assistant to Professor Edward Telfeyan in his legal research and writing course. He was a member of the Moot Court Honors Board, won top prize at the 2017 National Cultural Heritage Moot Court Competition in Chicago, served as a Primary Editor on the law review board, and received the 2018 Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award for the evening division. Kyle was also a student member of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court for the 2017-2018 academic year.
After law school, Kyle continued his stead with the District Court, where he spent the next two years as a judicial law clerk to Chief United States District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller. As a judicial law clerk, Kyle developed an expertise in federal procedure and engaged in a wide variety of complex legal matters related to substantive state and federal law.
Expertise
- Wage and hour counsel
- Former law clerk to Chief District Judge of the Eastern District of California
- Nearly 12 years of experience in federal court practice and procedure
- Former national moot court champion
Education
- William Jessup University, cum laude
- University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, with distinction
Committed to Community
Kyle loves spending time with his wife of nearly fifteen years and his four wild, yet lovable kids (two boys and two girls). Kyle is also an exercise enthusiast and an avid sports fan. He was born and raised in Sacramento and takes great pride in seeing the greater Sacramento area develop into the bustling metropolis it is today.

Lindley Fraley,
Of Counsel
Expertise
Lindley began her career as an associate in the Orange County office of Latham & Watkins where she focused on intellectual property matters, environmental law, and complex business litigation. Lindley was also employed as Associate Counsel for K. Hovnanian Homes in Irvine, California, and worked on various real estate and employment law matters.
Following her time at Latham & Watkins, Lindley was an associate with Payne & Fears in Irvine, California, where she focused on employment and business litigation matters. At Payne & Fears, Lindley prepared multiple cases for trial, took and defended multiple depositions, prepared dispositive motions on a regular basis, mediated cases, and successfully took cases to trial where defense verdicts were awarded.
Lindley has extensive knowledge of state and federal employment laws, and provides employment and HR counseling, as well as employment litigation services. Lindley regularly prepares DFEH and EEOC response letters, employee handbooks, and personnel policies. She also has ample experience in sexual harassment training, harassment and other types of workplace investigations, and human resources training.
Education
Lindley graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1998, where she was the valedictorian for the School of Public Policy and Management. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002, where she graduated in the top 1/3 of her class.

Roseville
925 Highland Pointe Dr
Suite 300
Roseville, CA 95678
916-960-2211
Sacramento
455 Capitol Mall
Suite 405
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-960-2211
San Francisco
201 Spear St
Suite 1100
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-660-3001
South Lake Tahoe
3079 Harrison Ave
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
530-600-6528
Fresno
8050 N Palm Ave
Suite 300
Fresno, CA 93711
559-389-5097
Los Angeles
700 Flower St
Suite 1000
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213-221-1315