What We Do
We are experienced attorneys who represent tenants and employees in pre-litigation, state and federal court, arbitration, and administrative hearings. We listen to individual clients and shape strategy around your needs. If you're having a problem with your employer or your landlord, talk to us.
How We Do It
“In excelsis” means “in the highest degree,” and that's how we approach our work at Excelsis Law, P.C. As passionate advocates who trained at top firms and aligned our moral compasses in public interest, we care about the people we work for, and the direction of the law. You can expect high-quality legal work tailored to your needs.
What It Costs
You don't pay us until we win. We take our cases on a contingency basis, which means our fees and costs come out of final recovery amounts. It also means we're on the same team, working toward goals together. You can expect transparency, honesty, and attorneys who consistently look out for your interests.
What Can We Help You With?
At Excelsis Law, P.C., we are experts in employment and housing law, representing employees and tenants only, in cases against their employers and landlords.
Listed below are some of our key practice areas. If you don't see your specific employment or housing law issue here, we may still be able to help. Please call us at (213) 340-0300 or (916) 314-8001, or submit the form at the bottom of this page for a free evaluation of your employment or housing issue.
Employment Law
Age Discrimination
Breach of Contract
Disability Discrimination
FMLA and CFRA
Gender Discrimination
Harassment
Hostile Work Environment
Pregnancy Discrimination
Racial Discrimination
Religious Discrimination
Rest & Meal Breaks
Retaliation
Sexual Harassment
Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Unpaid Overtime
Unpaid Wages
Whistle-Blower Retaliation
Wrongful Termination
Tenants' Rights
Breach of Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment
Breach of Warranty of Habitability
Constructive Eviction
Discrimination
Family Status Discrimination
Harassment
Illegal Rent Increases
Toxic Mold
Negligence
Nuisance
Retaliation
Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Tenant Habitability Plan Compliance
Threats of Violence by Landlord
Unlawful Entries by Landlord
Violations of Rent Control Ordinances
Willful Interruption of Utility Services
Wrongful Eviction
(We do not handle Unlawful Detainer/Eviction Cases)
About Us
Managing Attorney
C. Genevieve Jenkins is the founder and managing attorney of Excelsis Law, P.C. Prior to founding Excelsis Law, P.C. in 2018, Ms. Jenkins amassed nearly a decade of experience litigating with and against some of the toughest legal professionals throughout California. She founded Excelsis Law to focus on employment and housing litigation on behalf of employees and tenants. Ms. Jenkins made tremendous sacrifices early on in her career to be able to gain expertise in these crucial areas of law that often implicate important civil rights issues.
In her employment practice, Ms. Jenkins represents employees in harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wage-and-hour matters on an individual and class-action basis. In her housing practice, she represents tenants in civil lawsuits against landlords for issues including negligence, violations of the warranty of habitability, discrimination, and harassment.
Ms. Jenkins started her legal career as a litigator at Latham & Watkins – a highly selective corporate law firm with thousands of attorneys in offices worldwide that was founded in Los Angeles.
After 2.5 years at Latham, Ms. Jenkins was ready to follow her passion by advocating for individuals who found themselves in dire straits. From 2013-2014, she worked in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a voluntary legal advisor at Lawyers for Human Rights and as a law clerk to South African Constitutional Court Justice Johann van der Westhuizen. The South African Constitutional Court is equivalent to the United States Supreme Court, and is highly selective in choosing its clerks.
Thereafter, Ms. Jenkins sought to pursue her passion for civil rights advocacy closer to home, and so returned to Los Angeles, where she worked for several years with two of the best public-interest law firms for tenants’ rights and obtained significant experience in employment litigation at leading employee-side firms.
Partner
Zainah Alfi, a partner at Excelsis Law, P.C., is a Los Angeles native who pursued law to ensure that all people have a voice and access to justice. Ms. Alfi represents employees in all aspects of employment litigation, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, wage & hour violations, and whistleblower protection. In addition to litigating employment cases, Ms. Alfi represents tenants in affirmative housing cases premised on, among other things, landlords’ breaches of the warranty of habitability, negligence, harassment, retaliation, and discrimination.
Prior to joining Excelsis Law in January 2019, Ms. Alfi was a litigation attorney at a leading tenants' rights organization in Los Angeles. There, she defended tenants throughout Los Angeles County, helping resolve cases in tenants’ favor through both litigation and alternative dispute resolution.
After this, Ms. Alfi gained experience in the business world as a consultant for a startup company she led from concept to launch, managing all aspects of the business. Ms. Alfi obtained a unique perspective on employee-employer dynamics, as well as the real-life implications of employee agreements. It was in this role that Ms. Alfi recognized and first developed her passion for advocating for employees.
Ms. Alfi is a graduate of UCLA School of Law where she studied Critical Race Studies, and founded the UCLA Law chapter of the Iraqi Refugee Project. During law school, Ms. Alfi was a judicial extern for the Honorable Jay Ghandi, United States Magistrate Judge for the Central District of California, and a summer law clerk with the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at USC.
Ms. Alfi is fluent in English, Spanish, and Arabic.
Of Counsel
Ingrid M. Arriaga, counsel at Excelsis Law, P.C., is a housing law specialist.
Born in Guatemala, Ms. Arriaga immigrated to the San Fernando Valley with her family at a young age. Growing up in an immigrant family motivated Ms. Arriaga to devote her career to practicing law on behalf of underserved communities.
Prior to joining Excelsis Law, P.C., Ms. Arriaga dedicated more than a decade of her career to working for top public-interest law firms, defending tenants in eviction proceedings and advocating for tenants’ rights in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. She maintains that public-interest lens in the work she now does at Excelsis Law, seeking to represent the most vulnerable tenants, or those who have been egregiously wronged.
Along with her public-interest ideals, Ms. Arriaga has extensive litigation experience, including as lead counsel and second chair in numerous jury trials throughout Los Angeles County, one of which resulted in a published decision at the appellate level (Guttman v. Chiazor (2017) 15 Cal.App.5th Supp. 57). She has also trained and supervised several teams of attorneys in housing law litigation.
At Excelsis Law, Ms. Arriaga represents tenants in affirmative housing cases based on landlords’ breaches of the warranty of habitability, harassment, retaliation, negligence and discrimination, among other things.
Ms. Arriaga is fluent in Spanish and English.
Paralegal, Jessenia Monterrosa
Jessenia Monterrosa is the dedicated intake specialist at Excelsis Law, P.C. A certified paralegal with years of experience as an insurance broker, Jessie currently focuses on communication between potential clients and the firm's attorneys. Born in Los Angeles as a daughter of immigrants, Jessie has deep roots in the Latino community; as a bilingual Angelino, she takes pride in eliminating communication barriers.
Intake Specialist, Martha Galindo
Legal Memberships & Affiliations
State Bar of California, Labor & Employment Section
Member, California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA)
Member, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA)
Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA)
Member, National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
Member, Tenant Lawyer Network (TLN)
Bar Admissions
State Bar of California
Central District of California
Eastern District of California
Northern District of California
