SFALP Clinic Helps Secure Landmark Settlement for Lyft Employees

Yale Law School’s San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project (SFALP) supported the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office (SFCAO) in securing the largest wage-and-hour settlement in California history, together with the California Attorney General’s Office and the City Attorneys of San Diego and Los Angeles. The $272.5 million settlement with rideshare company Lyft resolves allegations that between 2016 and 2020, Lyft committed wage theft by misclassifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.

At least 25 SFALP students have worked on this landmark case, from before filing through the announcement of this landmark settlement. The settlement, subject to court approval, resolves claims against Lyft for misclassifying their drivers in violation of the California Labor Code and Unfair Competition Law. The case is led by Deputy City Attorneys Matthew Goldberg and Molly Alarcon ’16, who was a student in the clinic during her time at Yale Law School. 

“SFALP students bring tremendous energy, insight, and curiosity to their work with our Office,” Alarcon said. “Over the past six years, SFALP students have played an important role in helping us litigate this case to hold Lyft accountable.”

Varshini Parthasarathy ’23, now an associate at Gupta Wessler, highlighted the role her work on this case and other matters in SFALP played in her career path post-law school. “I feel very grateful that my teammates and I were able to contribute, in some small part, to this pathbreaking settlement — which gives workers the compensation they have long been owed,” she said.

Now in its 20th year, SFALP pairs Yale Law students with deputy city attorneys in San Francisco to conceive, develop, and litigate public interest lawsuits. The clinic was founded by former Law School Dean Heather Gerken and is now directed by Clinical Lecturer in Law Emma Sokoloff-Rubin ’18. 

Third-year student Sarena Martinez worked on this case and other worker protection matters for two semesters, as well as during her 1L summer internship at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. “It was amazing to work alongside and learn from the Worker Protection team,” Martinez said. “They navigated an incredibly complex case with remarkable skill and never lost sight of the drivers who kept California moving. I’m grateful to have been one of the many SFALP students who got to be a part of this work.”  

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by the City Attorneys and Attorney General in 2020 on behalf of the People of the State of California, alleging that Lyft’s misclassification of drivers deprived workers of critical workplace protections such as the right to minimum wage, overtime, and reimbursements for work-related expenses between 2016 and 2020. 

The lawsuit followed the introduction of the “ABC test,” the legal test used to analyze the misclassification of workers, which was first adopted by the California Supreme Court in 2018 in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court and codified into law under Assembly Bill 5. In the midst of litigation, Proposition 22 changed how the ABC test is applied to certain app-based drivers. Despite several appeals and changes in law, the People remained resilient, winning every challenge in court and remaining steadfast in their demands for drivers’ deserved wages and protections, according to the clinic. 

Under the settlement, Lyft must pay at least $272,500,000 in restitution and penalties, at least $237,075,000 of which (87%) will be reserved for drivers who worked for Lyft.