Ellen Leonida
Partner
Awards and Recognitions
California Super Lawyer (2023)
The American Lawyer Litigator of the Week - Shout Out (April 14, 2023)
The American Lawyer Litigator of the Week - Shout Out (April 28, 2023)
-
J.D. from University of California, Berkeley School of Law
B.A. from University of California, Santa Cruz
-
Office of the Federal Public Defender
Law Offices of Ellen Leonida
Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office
-
Member of the State Bar of California
Admitted in the Northern District, Central District and Southern District of California and in the Ninth Circuit, Fifth Circuit, and First Circuit of Court of Appeals
Admitted in the United States Supreme Court
-
Biography
Ellen Leonida is a partner at BraunHagey & Borden and head of the impact litigation practice. Her practice focuses on leading a broad range of impact litigation in state and federal courts. She also heads the firm’s white-collar practice.
Ellen has conducted over 80 jury trials in federal courts in the Northern District of California and California state courts. She has lectured nationally on topics including DNA, digital forensics, and trial skills. Ellen is currently an adjunct professor at USF School of Law and has taught at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She served as a judicial representative for the Northern District of California Judicial Conference in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Representative Matters
-
Ellen led a trial team that won a breach of contract claim on behalf of a client whose business was destroyed after an automated production system it had contracted for did not work. Following a six-week trial in Sonoma County Superior Court, the jury awarded our client $21 million, plus attorneys’ fees.
Smashmallow, LLC v. Tanis Food Tec B.V.
-
Ellen and her team represent a group of library patrons fighting unconstitutional book bans in Llano County, Texas. On March 30, 2023, Ellen secured a preliminary injunction ordering that the Llano County Library system must return previously removed books to circulation and not remove any book, for any reason, for the duration of the case. The case is currently before the fifth circuit court of appeals.
Little, et al v. Llano County et al.
-
Ellen secured a settlement in BHB’s lawsuit against the City of Huntington Park to stop its illegal practice of imprisoning immigrants for ICE on the basis of ICE detainer requests. The city agreed to abide by an injunction barring it from future illegal conduct and to make a $74,100 cash donation to the Council of Mexican Federations in North America, a nonprofit immigration advocacy organization.
Maldonado v. Huntington Park Police Department
-
Ellen and her team represent a class of prisoners who have been systematically denied access to their attorneys in violation of their U.S. Constitutional rights. In December 2021, Ellen secured an injunction against the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (“MDOC”), preventing the state from using faulty drug test results to punish inmates. Since the injunction was granted, the MDOC approved a new policy, which tracks the injunction and preserves the confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship inside Massachusetts prisons.
Green v. Sirchie et al. (D.MA). and Green v. Massachusetts DOC (Suffolk, SS).
Personal
Ellen lives in San Francisco with her husband. She spends her free time camping, chasing her dog around the beach, and dominating her fantasy football league.
For more information about Ellen’s representative cases and experience, please contact the firm.