James Hawkins

James Hawkins is an employment attorney at James Hawkins APLC in Irvine, California. His California license is active under the name James Ross Hawkins. Wage-and-hour class actions have been part of his work since 2002; in a July 2023 declaration, he described those cases as making up the vast majority of his practice since then.

That work began during his years at Hawkins & Sofonio, where he was a named partner from 1997 through 2007. At the Irvine firm, he litigated employee claims involving wrongful termination, age discrimination, disability, wages and hours, and sexual harassment. In 2007, he incorporated his wage-and-hour class action practice as James Hawkins APLC. His declaration lists both federal and state court matters in which he served as lead or co-lead counsel, including cases against 3M, Kmart and Aramark Campus.

Before entering practice, Hawkins studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1993, and at Whittier Law School, graduating in 1997. His law-school years included two externships: one with U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in 1996, followed by another with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Each lasted approximately five months. California admitted him to the bar on December 9, 1997.

Today, James Hawkins APLC describes its work as employment and labor law in California and Washington. The firm's listed services include employment class actions, unpaid-overtime disputes, wrongful termination, workplace discrimination and retaliation.