Karen C. Carrera
Jennifer Reisch
R. Michael Flynn
Mark Talamantes
Virginia Villegas

Karen C. Carrera, of Counsel:

Karen Carrera is a mentoring attorney with Legal Aid of Marin. She has made a career of representing the under-represented citizens of San Francisco and the Bay Area. Ms. Carrera currently serves on the Board of Directors of Equal Rights Advocates and the Northern California Human Resources Association - North Bay Chapter, and serves as Legal Counsel for The Reed Schools Foundation in Tiburon, California. She has served on boards of the ACLU of Northern California, Bay Area Legal Aid, La Raza Centro Legal, and St. Peter's Housing Committee. She serves as a volunteer attorney for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and Legal Aid of Marin and is a member of the California State Bar, Labor and Employment Law Section.

In October 2007, Ms. Carrera launched Karen Carrera Consulting, a division of TVC, specializing in prevention of employment litigation and governance of non-profit organizations. Ms. Carrera provides employers with discrimination and harassment avoidance training and she conducts neutral fact-finding investigations into employment-related disputes.

In 2005 and 2006, she recieved the Wiley M. Manuel Award State Bar of California, presented by Legal Aid of Marin, as a Pro-Bono Advocate of the year.

Prior to joining TVC, Ms. Carrera worked as a Deputy City Attorney with the San Francisco City Attorney's Office from 1996 through 2003. In recognition of her considerable contributions to the citizens of the City and County of San Francisco in terms of both the issuance of injunctions to cure ongoing violations, and the recovery of significant judgments and settlements against code violators, she received a commendation by Chief of Police Lau in 2002 on behalf of SFPD, and a certificate of recognition from Mayor Willie Brown of the City of San Francisco. For her dedication to serving low income citizens, she was also recognized by San Francisco's Minority Bar Association Coalition and The San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association as a 2001 Unity Award recipient.

In May 2002, Ms. Carrera was honored by the San Francisco Code Enforcement Task Force - SAFE Program - for her "outstanding contribution for crime prevention education, community organizing, and public safety."

in 2001, Ms. Carrera recieved the Unity Award and was recognized for "Outstanding Service to the Legal Community" by the San Francisco Minority Bar Coalition and the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association.

Prior to working her position with the City, Ms. Carrera was a supervising attorney with La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco.

Ms. Carrera is a 1992 graduate of Hastings College of the Law, the University of California, where she served as the student body president during her third year. She became a member of the California State Bar in 1993. She earned her Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles in May 1988. Ms. Carrera became a member of the Jesuit Honor Society Alpha Sigma Nu in 1986.

Jennifer Reisch:

Jennifer A. Reisch is an senior attorney at Talamantes/Villegas/Carrera, LLP in San Francisco, where she specializes in representing low-wage and immigrant workers in class action wage and hour, employment discrimination, and related civil rights litigation. Ms. Reisch was named as one of Northern California Super Lawyer's Rising Stars in 2009 and 2010 lists of "Rising Stars" in Super Lawyers magazine.

Prior to joining TVC in 2005, Ms. Reisch practiced plaintiff-side employment and human rights litigation at Bahan & Associates in Pasadena, California and served as the 2002-2003 Public Interest Law Fellow at Public Advocates in San Francisco. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law and was admitted to practice in 2002. Ms. Reisch received her B.A. in History with honors, as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale College in 1996.

In addition to her litigation work, Ms. Reisch also currently serves as an adjunct professor at Hastings College of the Law in the spring of 2009, and previously taught a course at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars and has contributed to the publication of several litigation manuals, articles and other materials about the rights of immigrant and low-wage workers in employment and related civil rights areas. Ms. Reisch currently volunteers as a supervising attorney with the Workers' Rights Clinic of the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center and serves on the National Steering Committee of Esperanza: The Immigrant Women's Legal Initiative, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. She is also a member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, the California Employment Lawyers Association and its Immigrant Employment Rights Committee, and serves on the Low Wage Worker Advisory Group of the National Employment Lawyers Association. Ms. Reisch is fluent in Spanish and French.

R. Michael Flynn:

R. Michael Flynn is an associate at Talamantes/Villegas/Carrera, LLP in San Francisco.

He shares the goals of the rest of the firm to provide strong and effective representation for low wage, Spanish-speaking immigrant and other workers.

Mr Flynn obtained his Juris Doctorate from Golden Gate University School of Law in May 2008 with specializations in Public Interest Law and Environmental Law. Mr Flynn recieved the Paul S. Jordan Service & Leadership Award for his public interest volunteer activities during law school. Mr. Flynn is a regular volunteer at the workers' rights and immigration advice clinics at La Raza Centro Legal in San Francisco. During law school, Mr. Flynn clerked for Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale LLP at the SF Public Defender, Communities for a Better Environment, the GGU Environmental Law and Justice Clinic and at Justice Now.

Mr. Flynn is an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, serving as Chair of the Anti-Racism Committee, serves on the SF Bay Area NLG Board, member of the Employment & Labor Committee and member of the Immigration Committee. He is a member of the Hispanic National Bar Association. He is fluent in Spanish. Mr. Flynn earned his Bachelor of Science cum laude from Humboldt State University in 2004 in Environmental Science and Policy.

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Mark Talamantes:

Mark Talamantes established the firm in 1999. He is a 1995 graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Mr. Talamantes is a frequent lecturer on the topics of wage and hour employment litigation and collecting attorneys' fees in the State of California. In October 2007 and September 2006, Mr. Talamantes participated on a panel at the state convention of the California Employment Lawyers Association regarding Recovering Attorney's Fees and Costs in impact litigation. In 2006, Mr. Talamantes was a guest speaker at the national convention of the National Employment Lawyers Association, on Wage and Hour Class Actions in California. In July 2006, he was a guest speaker at the national convention of the Hispanic National Bar Association on Representing Low Income Individuals in Impact Litigation.

Mr. Talamantes is a Barrister member of the Edward J. McFetridge Inn of Court, San Francisco. He also currently serves on the National Board of Directors, Texas Tech University, College of Mass Communications, and has served on the Executive Board of Directors as the Communication Director of the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Assoc. TVC has been honored by California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (2008) and the Watsonville Law Center (2007) for providing access to justice to California's poor. In 2006 TVC was honored by United States Representative Barbara Lee and Representative Sam Farr. Mr. Talamantes is a Unity Award recipient for year 2004.
He is a member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Marin County Trial Lawyers Association, Bar Association of San Francisco, San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association and California Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Talamantes is proud to represent the Bar Association of San Francisco as their representative Member of the Board Directors of California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.

Mark Talamantes was born in El Paso, Texas on April 25, 1966. He became a member of the California State Bar in 1997, and is admitted to the U.S. District Court, Northern, Central and Eastern Districts of California, and U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Texas Tech University in May 1988.

Virginia Villegas:

As an attorney, Virginia Villegas has dedicated her career to working on behalf of low-income and mostly monolingual Spanish-speaking, immigrant workers in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

After graduating from The University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1995, Ms. Villegas worked at La Raza Centro Legal, a community based non-profit organization until May 2001. As the Supervising Attorney of the Workers' Advocacy Project, a project created to represent and educate Latino workers of their employment rights, Ms. Villegas won significant victories for some of the most vulnerable and exploited workers such as day laborers, janitors, restaurant workers and domestic workers. Ms. Villegas also developed training and curricular materials, in English and Spanish, to provide educational workshops to other attorneys, advocates, student volunteers, law student interns, and low-wage workers. Ms. Villegas has also served as an instructor at San Francisco's City College where she taught a bilingual Workers' Rights and the Law course.

Since May 2001, Ms. Villegas has be a partner at Talamantes/Villegas/Carrera and has continued to represent low wage, immigrant workers in wage and hour class actions and discrimination matters as well as providing educational trainings to low wage workers. In addition, Ms. Villegas serves as the firm's managing partner.

Ms. Villegas currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Young Women's Development. On November 30, 2006, Ms. Villegas was appointed to the Sweatfree Procurement Advisory Group by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and served on that Board for two years. Ms Villegas has also served on the Board of Directors of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association, Discrimination Research Center and the Homeless Prenatal Program.

Ms. Villegas also serves as a volunteer attorney for the Workers' Rights Clinic of the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center and is a member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. Ms. Villegas also regularly serves as a guest lecturer at Hastings College of Law's Public Interest Law Seminar and is a frequent commentator on the Spanish language network stations - Univision and Telemundo - regarding labor/employment laws impacting immigrant and Latino workers. Ms. Villegas has also testified multiple times before the California Assembly Labor and Employment Committee in support of legislation affecting California Workers.

Honored by the San Francisco Minority Bar Coalition and the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Assoc., Ms. Villegas was the Unity Award recipient for the year 2000. She earned her Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles in May 1992. Ms. Villegas became a member of the Jesuit Honor Society Alpha Sigma Nu in 1988. In May 1995, Ms. Villegas earned her J.D. from UC Hastings College of Law where she graduated from the Public Interest Program and received the 1995 Hastings Outstanding Student Leader Award.