Deborah Chang and Candice Klein set an extraordinarily high bar for their new law firm. They wanted to build a first-class litigation boutique, owned by women, that would, in Chang’s words, “handle cases that have a real impact and where we can make a difference.”
They agreed they would not take every matter that came their way. Instead, the firm would be highly selective and focus on cutting-edge lawsuits that had the possibility of reshaping the law, advancing social justice on a national scale, and holding the powerful to account. “The case has to affect many people and help improve lives or remedy an injustice,” Chang said.
Just five years after setting that goal and founding their firm, the pair have built Southern California’s Chang Klein LLP into a go-to boutique for complex, high-impact litigation, securing record-breaking verdicts and settlements across a wide range of cases. This year alone, the firm played a pivotal role as part of the trial team in the first bellwether trial in federal court in Phoenix, which resulted in a groundbreaking $8.5 million jury verdict holding Uber liable for a sexual assault committed by one of its drivers — a result that drew national attention. Weeks later, Chang and Klein were back in the courtroom in Riverside, taking on the State of California in a case involving the alleged sexual exploitation of a developmentally disabled deaf student at the California School for the Deaf, advocating on behalf of some of the state’s most vulnerable students.
“We understand the greater good that one case can do,” Chang said. “That’s what really moves us and compels us. That’s why we say, ‘we turn cases into causes.’ ”
- Women-owned Chang Klein LLP built a selective litigation practice focused on cases with broad public impact and accountability.
- The firm helped secure an $8.5 million federal jury verdict holding Uber liable for a driver sexual assault in a closely watched bellwether trial.
- Collaborative teams and partnerships with women-led firms drive complex trials and major results, including more than $100 million in elder abuse settlements.
- Why it matters: Their cases have sparked policy changes and stronger protections for students, riders and vulnerable people nationwide.
Cohesive Team, Collaborative Approach
Before founding their boutique, Chang and Klein had previously worked together at another Los Angeles-area plaintiffs’ firm, as had a number of the firm’s other lawyers. “What makes our team so special is not only that we have worked with each other for a long time, but that we trust each other, and there are no egos,” Chang said. “We all help each other.”
Collaboration, in fact, is one of the firm’s most powerful weapons. Chang Klein routinely partners with other firms, particularly those owned by women. Chang is a founder of Athea Trial Lawyers, a firm comprised of leading female litigators from around the country. “We are part of something bigger with other women,” Chang said. “We co-try cases with people we respect and want to work with.”
In the Uber case, for instance, Chang was approached by Sarah London, a partner at San Francisco’s Girard Sharp. London is co-lead and liaison counsel in multidistrict litigation against the ridesharing giant. Uber is being sued by more than 3,000 women in federal court and hundreds more in California state court over sexual assaults by the company’s drivers. London assembled the courtroom team for a bellwether trial in Phoenix that would test legal arguments and potential damages against the company.
A Bet-the-Farm Case
As co-trial counsel in Phoenix, Chang Klein joined a multi-firm effort that brought in lawyers from across the country. “They set up a war room, and it was amazing. Women from all over the country left their families and homes to work non-stop on this trial. Chang said. The stakes could not have been higher. “This was a bet-the-farm case for both sides,” she said. “If we lost in Phoenix, the first bellwether case in federal court, we worried about what would happen to women who had been sexually assaulted by an Uber driver but had been too afraid or intimidated to come forward?”
Chang is renowned for meticulous preparation and an exceptional ability to present evidence and communicate complex factual and technical issues in a manner that connects with jurors. Storytelling, it has been said, is the engine that wins cases, and Chang is a master of the artform.
Those skills proved critical in taking on Uber, whose seemingly limitless resources enabled it to retain one of the world’s largest and most formidable defense firms for trial. Chang and her fellow plaintiffs’ lawyers knew they were facing a powerful opponent. “We had a 19-year-old girl standing up against one of the most powerful companies in the world,” Chang said. “They scrutinized everything she had ever posted on social media and examined her prior sexual assault history in excruciating detail.” Despite that pressure, the plaintiff remained remarkably courageous, standing up not only for herself, but for every woman who had been sexually assaulted by an Uber driver.
Chang said the jury’s multimillion-dollar verdict for her client was made all the sweeter because the majority of the lawyers involved were women. “I have always been a proponent of the idea that it’s time for women to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight,” Chang said. “Women belong in the courtroom in cutting-edge, important cases. And this verdict proved that.”
Record-Setting Victories
The Uber trial is also a testament to Chang Klein’s versatility. The firm is not bound by a single practice or industry focus. “I am not a mass torts person,” Chang said. “But that’s what’s great about our jobs. You help jurors learn, and you learn fascinating things as well.”
This perspective has led the firm’s lawyers to amass a remarkable roster of seven-, eight-, and nine-figure wins across an eclectic mix of cases—often changing public policy and setting new records for the size of damages recovered for clients in the process. In the first two years that the firm began trying elder abuse and dependent adult cases, they achieved settlements in excess of $100,000,000.00 for their clients.
Hall of Fame-Worthy Work
Those wins are par for the course for Chang, who has had a career defined by precedent-setting cases. She won a record verdict against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that led to improved protections for visually impaired transit riders nationwide. The California Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in a Chang case that established a duty by colleges and universities to protect students from known dangers in the classroom. And in another case, a $160,500,000 verdict led to sweeping changes in the security industry throughout the country.
Early in her career, and while she was on the defense side, Chang also filed the first-ever class action on behalf of maximum-security prisoners with AIDS, which helped spur changes in medical care, programming, and housing protocols for those inmates. And she brought the first lawsuit under the Violence Against Women Act, successfully defending the law’s constitutionality in federal court.
Peers in the legal community have recognized Chang’s broad impact on California and the country as a whole. In March, for instance, the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles inducted her into its Hall of Fame, and the Consumer Attorneys of California named her Consumer Attorney of the Year in 2023 and in 2014. In 2025, she received the 2025 Lee B. Wenzel Civility Award from the Los Angeles chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), for which she also served as its Past President.
“We have done so much in the last five years,” Chang said of her firm. “We are so fortunate to be able to work on cutting-edge cases for clients we love, and we have achieved some of the largest verdicts and settlements. And the great thing is, we’re just getting started.”
