Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin

What Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin does

Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin LLP is a California-based plaintiffs'-side law firm headquartered in the Presidio of San Francisco, with a second office in Century City, Los Angeles. The firm was founded in 1980 (per its primary filing record) and operates as a limited liability partnership with admitted attorneys in California and New York and federal court appearances in Austin, Nashville, Miami, and Boston. Its tagline 'Disciplined. Creative. Fearless.' frames a practice organized around seven areas: Appeals, Class Action, Commercial, Employment, IP & Entertainment, Personal Injury, and Sports Law.

The firm represents individuals, employees, consumers, musicians, and athletes across trial, appellate, and transactional matters. Its docket spans plaintiff-side employment discrimination and wage-and-hour class actions, consumer/data-privacy class actions (including TikTok), personal injury and traumatic brain injury cases, entertainment copyright/trademark disputes, right of publicity work, and emerging sports/NIL representation. Core case results include a $431 million bank overdraft class action settlement, a $92 million TikTok data-privacy settlement, $23 million in music royalty class actions, and a unanimous California Supreme Court victory in Raines v. US Healthworks (2023) establishing direct FEHA liability for employer business entity agents.

The firm generates revenue through two streams: traditional hourly billing for legal services and contingency fees on plaintiff matters where no fee is charged absent recovery. Go-to-market is sales-led via direct attorney-client relationships, with no technology platform or productized offering; the firm markets through its website/news section, earned media (ABC7, CBS Bay Area, Fox Sports Radio), legal trade publications (Daily Journal, Plaintiff Magazine), and community involvement. It employs between 11 and 50 people across its two offices and is privately held by its named partners (Randy Erlewine, David M. Given, Nicholas Carlin, Brian S. Conlon), with no external investment or parent company.

Name

Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin

Legal name

Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin LLP

Website

https://phillaw.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1980

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin LLP is a plaintiffs'-side California law firm with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, representing individuals, employees, consumers, musicians, and athletes across employment, class action, personal injury, IP/entertainment, sports, and appellate matters on hourly and contingency fee bases.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legal Services

NAICS

Offices of Lawyers (541110), Offices of Lawyers (54111)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro primary industry

Litigation & Dispute Resolution (BPAHAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Employment & Labor Law (BPAHAAAD), Personal Injury & Insurance Defense (BPAHAAAM)

Keywords

• Legal services
• Class action litigation
• Employment law
• Personal injury law
• Intellectual property law

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Hourly Billing: Traditional hourly billing for legal services rendered. Attorneys charge for time spent on client matters.
2. Contingency Fees: The firm represents clients in certain cases on a contingent fee basis where no fee is charged in the absence of recovery.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin LLP is a California-based plaintiff-side law firm providing trial, appellate, and transactional legal services across seven practice areas: Appeals, Class Action, Commercial, Employment, IP & Entertainment, Personal Injury, and Sports Law. The firm represents individual employees, personal injury victims, entertainment industry professionals, class action plaintiffs, and business clients in state and federal courts throughout California and New York.

Product overview

Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin LLP is a California-based law firm offering legal services across seven practice areas: Appeals, Class Action, Commercial, Employment, IP & Entertainment, Personal Injury, and Sports Law. The firm provides trial, appellate, and transactional legal services to individuals and businesses throughout California and in federal courts nationwide. The practice areas are distinct service offerings unified under the firm's single legal practice, with no modular product architecture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Appeals Appellate legal representation and advocacy before state and federal appellate courts. Serves clients seeking to challenge or defend trial court rulings in California, New York, and federal appellate courts.
• Class Action Plaintiff-side class action representation across wage theft, privacy, consumer rights, and other mass harm matters. Serves large groups of individuals harmed by corporate practices.
• Commercial Litigation Business and commercial litigation including partnership disputes, contract disputes, commercial transactions, and business torts. Serves companies and business entities in commercial conflicts.
• Employment Law Plaintiff-side employment law representation for employees in discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, and wage and hour disputes. Serves individual employees and classes of workers whose workplace rights have been violated.
• IP & Entertainment Law Intellectual property and entertainment law services including copyright, trademark, right of publicity, royalty disputes, and entertainment industry contract matters. Serves musicians, recording artists, producers, and entertainment industry professionals.
• Personal Injury Plaintiff-side personal injury representation including car accidents, premises liability, medical malpractice, wrongful death, and traumatic brain injuries. Serves individuals who have been physically injured due to another party's negligence.
• Sports Law Sports law representation including Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) disputes, athlete contract matters, and sports-related commercial disputes. Serves athletes, agents, and sports-related entities.

Quantifiable outcome

• Achieved $431 million in Bank Overdraft Class Actions
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers19 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators20 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Dolan Law Firm: San Francisco plaintiffs' firm focused on employment, personal injury, and consumer class actions; closely comparable in size, geography, and plaintiff-side litigation mix.
• Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger: San Francisco plaintiffs' firm with a strong personal injury and catastrophic injury practice; directly comparable on the personal injury and trial-litigation side.
• Robins Kaplan LLP: National plaintiffs' firm with a strong class action and mass tort practice; comparable contingency class action and trial work, with overlap in privacy and consumer cases.
• Grant & Eisenhofer: Plaintiff-side firm focused on securities, antitrust, and consumer class actions; comparable contingency class action economics and appellate capability.
• Geragos & Geragos: California plaintiffs' and trial firm with class action and catastrophic injury work; comparable contingency-driven, plaintiff-side model operating statewide.
• Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein: San Francisco-based plaintiffs' firm with a comparable plaintiff-side class action, employment, and personal injury practice; similar hybrid hourly/contingency model and California-anchored footprint.
• Keller Rohrback L.L.P. Plaintiff-side firm with complex class action and consumer litigation practice; comparable employment, consumer, and appellate capabilities.
• Minami Tamaki LLP: Bay Area plaintiffs' firm with employment, consumer, and personal injury work; comparable boutique scale and California-centric jurisdiction profile.

Broad incumbents

• Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP: Largest U.S. securities and shareholder class action firm; a scaled incumbent in the same plaintiff-side class action category, with substantially broader resources.
• Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: National plaintiffs' firm with securities, antitrust, and consumer class actions; comparable contingency class work but operates at significantly larger scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/phillawyers
• Facebookfacebook.com/100004104102331

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Phillips, Erlewine, Given & Carlin