Alreen Haeggquist is dedicated San Diego employment lawyer representing employees who have been wrongfully terminated, harassed, and discriminated against at work. Over the past 17 years, she has recovered millions of dollars for her clients in cases involving wrongful termination, sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wage theft. She founded Haeggquist & Eck in 2008 and serves as the firm’s managing partner.
Alreen’s passion for representing employees started at a very early age. Her parents immigrated to the United States to create a better life for their family, and watching them work tirelessly to provide her with every opportunity informed her unwavering commitment to advancing human rights and giving a voice to the underrepresented. Today, the overwhelming majority of Alreen’s clients are women who have suffered egregious wrongs at the hands of their employers. No defendant is too large or powerful for her to tackle: she has recently represented plaintiffs in employment claims against such major corporations as Trader Joe’s, Sharp Healthcare, Wyndham, Kaiser Permanente, and the Grand Del Mar. In 2017, her jury trial verdict in a disability discrimination case against Kaiser Permanente was awarded one of the Top 50 Employment Verdicts in California.
In 2018 alone, Alreen represented a female scientist in a well-publicized gender discrimination case against The Salk Institute, which ended with a confidential settlement shortly before trial. That same year, she also secured a confidential settlement on behalf of an employee of Jollibee, a national fast-food chain, in a case involving claims of sexual harassment, which after the motion for fees, totaled over $1.2 million.
Alreen also served as class counsel in the high-profile consumer fraud litigation against presidential contender Donald Trump and Trump University, which settled in November 2016 for $25 million. The settlement was deemed one of California’s Top 50 Class Action Settlements in 2016. For their seven years of work in the case, Alreen and her partners took no fees or costs.
Alreen’s commitment to equality, respect, and giving a voice to all, despite race, religion, gender, or disability drives her every day to do her very best for each person who entrusts her with that opportunity. She comes from a very large family and treats each one of her clients as an extension of her own, and believes each of her clients should have the same quality of representation that she would want for her loved ones. When Alreen is not fighting for equality, she loves spending time outdoors with her husband, Michael, and their daughter, Maya.
Awards
• The National Trial Lawyers Top 100
• San Diego Super Lawyer (2016-2019)
• Top 25 Women Super Lawyers (2019)
• Top 50 San Diego Super Lawyers (2019)
• Consumer Attorneys of San Diego President’s Award winner (2017)
• 40 Under 40, SD Metro Magazine (2016)
• National Association of Women Business Owners’ Women’s Advocate of the Year nominee (2016)
• Top Labor/Employment Attorney, San Diego Daily Transcript
• California Innocence Project’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipient
• Women Who Change The Game’s “Mover & Shaker” Award recipient
• Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent rated
Notable Cases
• Confidential settlement, plus $1.2 million in attorney’s fees, in sexual harassment case against a national fast-food chain
• Confidential settlement in gender discrimination against The Salk Institute
• $492,000 trial verdict in disability discrimination case against Kaiser Permanente (ranked among top Top 50 Employment Verdicts in California in 2017)
• $25 million for class members in high-profile consumer fraud litigation against then-presidential contender Donald Trump and Trump University (one of California’s Top 50 Class Action Settlements in 2016)
Giving Back
• Founding board member and current advisory board member, Think Dignity
• Co-chair, Lawyers Club of San Diego Sexual Harassment Task Force
• Board of Directors and Co-Chair, Grant Committee, San Diego County Bar Foundation
• Litigation Section of the State Bar of California
• Consumer Attorneys of San Diego
• Consumer Attorneys of California
• California Employment Lawyers Association
• San Diego County Bar Association
