In the News

We’re thrilled to announce that Jenna Rangel has been promoted to partner at Haeggquist & Eck!

Jenna has been with the firm since 2014 and as devoted her career to representing employees in claims involving wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour violations at work. She has obtained millions of dollars in damages on behalf of her clients and has represented clients against such employers as the Orange County Fire Authority, the Salk Institute, Herbalife, the Grand del Mar, Wyndham. This year alone, Jenna obtained a trial verdict against the San Diego Sheriff’s Department in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department and the former Assistant Sheriff.  

Jenna was selected in 2019 and 2020 as a Super Lawyers Rising Star, an honor received by less than 2.5 percent of attorneys in California each year. She was also selected as the San Diego Business Journal’s Best of the Bar in 2017 and as a Leaders in Law finalist in 2021.

A native San Diegan, Jenna graduated in 2010 from California Western School of Law, where her tireless dedication to public interest causes, including work for the nonprofit California Women’s Law Center on matters relating to gender discrimination and for the County of San Diego’s Juvenile Dependency Division assisting in the representation of foster children in court, earned her a spot on the school’s Pro Bono Honor Society. Jenna holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from California State University-Chico and a paralegal certificate from the University of San Diego.  In her free time, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her husband and young son and daughter.

Congratulations, Jenna!

Reporter Andrew Gumbel recently published a deep dive into the gender discrimination and disparity issues facing the fire service. Check out “Houses On Fire,” his recent piece in Red Canary — which highlights Haeggquist & Eck’s case against the Orange County Fire Authority on behalf of fire pilot Desiree Horton — here.

Haeggquist & Eck’s Alreen Haeggquist and Jenna Rangel have filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the Orange County Fire Authority on behalf of Desiree Horton, OCFA’s first female helicopter fire pilot.

Horton, a career pilot with 30 years of flying experience and 16 years of aerial firefighting experience, joined OCFA in 2019 as the agency’s first permanently employed female fire pilot. Prior to joining OCFA, she was a fire pilot with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), where she also was that agency’s first female fire pilot.

In the lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court, the HAE team alleges that despite her experience (more than any of her male colleagues at OCFA) and despite glowing reviews from former employers and colleagues, OCFA failed Desiree after her one-year probationary period – and without the required one-year evaluation flight. The suit alleges that during Desiree’s time at the OCFA, she was unfairly and discriminatorily scrutinized by the male pilots, crew chiefs, and helicopter technicians, held to unfair and higher standards than her male counterparts, deprived of training opportunities offered to the male fire pilots, unfairly evaluated without proper training and often with little or no advance notice, lied to about the conditions of her passing probation, and forced to work in a hostile environment in which she was ignored, undermined, disrespected, disparaged, and made to feel as though she was incompetent.

Horton wants her job back — and she wants transparency and accountability from OCFA so women and underrepresented groups are treated fairly in recruitment, hiring, and training.

The HAE legal team was joined by representatives from California National Organization For Women, Democratic Party of Orange County, Stentorians of Los Angeles City, Orange County Veterans Democratic Club and Lavender Democrats at a virtual press conference June 9 announcing the case. Watch the news conference here.

Check out reporter Andrew Gumbel’s piece on the issues facing the fire industry (and highlighting Desiree Horton’s case) here.

The San Diego Union Tribune has reported on Haeggquist & Eck’s trial victory in a sexual harassment and failure to prevent sexual harassment lawsuit against the County of San Diego’s Sheriff’s Department and former Assistant Sheriff Richard Miller. Read about how and why sexual harassment, no matter the form or how egregious, should be reported and taken seriously by employers: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2021-05-08/staffer-awarded-60k-in-sexual-harassment-allegations-targeting-former-assistant-sheriff

After a three-year fight, HAE attorneys Alreen Haeggquist and Jenna Rangel prevailed this week in a sexual harassment trial against the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. Alreen and Jenna represented Louise LaFoy, a secretary who alleged that former Assistant Sheriff Richard Miller groped and harassed her starting in 2014. Read more about the case (and our incredible client) here.