MEET THE TEAM

Craig Ackermann has over 25 years of employment law and class action experience. This year, he has led the firm in resolving one meal break class action in Washington State for $16 million on behalf of 24,000 health care workers, and a second for $11 million on behalf of 11,600 health care workers. Additionally, in 2024, he was co-lead counsel in a California PAGA/class action alleging illegal on-premises rest breaks against a grocery chain that settled for $14 million. Since 2007, he has also been lead or co-lead counsel in more than 600 class, collective, or PAGA actions that settled from $250k to $14 million each, on behalf of more than 500,000 workers. Craig has also obtained class certification in 8 contested class certification motions since 2008, including one in December 2018 for over 3,800 truck drivers in a pending wage/hour case, and another in mid-2017, in a trucker rest break case for 540 drivers that settled for $2.95 million. In 2016, after 7 years of litigation in another case, he obtained a $1.2 million fee award on a contested fee motion in a class action where the total recovery to the class, including fees, was over $3.3 million. He has also successfully tried Title VII cases to jury verdicts, including a Title VII retaliation case in federal court in Los Angeles where final judgment was entered for Plaintiff for $370k, including fees and costs. He has obtained excellent results for executives in breach of employment contract cases, including a $3.4m settlement in an arbitration for a finance executive and a $2.5m settlement in another arbitration for a real estate executive who alleged wrongful termination and breach of contract. In 2025, he and the firm settled 14 individual racial harassment arbitrations against a paint manufacturing company for a total of $725,000. In 2022, he settled a 7-plaintiff sexual harassment case for $1m. In 2021, he settled a racial harassment case for $1.3 million on behalf of 19 construction workers. In 2020, he settled a racial harassment case in the construction industry for $1 million on behalf of 27 workers. In the early 2000’s, he was second chair on a $23.5 million settlement for 150 female workers in a case that, at the time, was the second-largest sexual harassment case in US history. As a mediator, he also brings these 25 years of employment law experience, on both sides of the aisle, to the table in his efforts to resolve employment matters. Employment Mediation Corp. (EMC), where he is partnered with Jaclyn Blackwell, has been growing rapidly, as he now mediates cases 2 – 3 times per week and settles the vast majority of them. EMC’s unique fee structure – where he only charges a fee if he settles the case – is a crowd pleaser. His most recent start-up, Employee Litigation Shield Corp (ELSC) launched on August 1, 2025 and will assist small businesses with preventing employee litigation.

As a shareholder of Ackermann & Tilajef, P.C., Yael Tilajef Ackermann was formerly involved in building the firm’s sexual harassment practices. She has served as lead or co-lead counsel in a growing number of sexual harassment cases in California. She has represented dozens of victims of workplace sexual harassment in cases throughout California, including cases involving male-on-male sexual harassment, anti-gay harassment, teenage sexual harassment cases, and traditional male on female harassment cases. Previously, Yael Tilajef Ackermann worked as an associate for the Law Offices of Vicki J. Greene, practicing complex litigation for clients in high net-worth family law cases. Before moving back to Los Angeles in early 2003, she also worked in New York City from 1999 through 2002 as an associate for the law firms of Rimberg & Associates, P.C. and Peter Axelrod & Associates, P.C., and served as a judicial intern to the Honorable Bernard J. Fried of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Mrs. Ackermann holds a BS from Sy Syms School of Business, a division of Yeshiva University and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. She is admitted to the New York, New Jersey, and California Bars. Currently, Mrs. Ackermann occasionally works a couple of days per month, and is primarily involved in firm administration activities.

Avi Kreitenberg joined the team at Ackermann & Tilajef, P.C. in 2017 and became a Shareholder in 2022. Avi’s practice focuses on the firm’s California and Washington wage-and-hour class and representative action cases, assisting employees recover wrongfully withheld wages, breaks, and expenses from employers big and small throughout California and Washington state. Avi is admitted to practice law in California and Washington State, and is a member of the Bars of the U.S. District Court for the Central, Northern, Eastern and Southern Districts of California. Avi received his law degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law. Prior to law school, Avi graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in English. Prior to joining the team at Ackermann & Tilajef, P.C., Avi worked as an Associate at KamberLaw, LLP, a consumer and privacy class action law firm.

Brian Denlinger joined Ackermann & Tilajef’s Tacoma, Washington office as a Senior Associate in 2017, and he became a Shareholder in 2022. Brian is responsible for all of the firm’s Washington wage-and-hour class action cases (i.e., claims for unpaid wages, off-the-clock time, rest and meal periods, overtime, and other violations) on behalf of truck drivers, farm workers, nurses, hotel workers, restaurant workers, laborers, etc. Brian is also involved in numerous multi-plaintiff and individual employment discrimination actions, including sexual and racial harassment cases, retaliation cases, and class actions under Title VII and other civil rights laws seeking equal pay and promotions. Brian is licensed to practice law in the States of Washington and Colorado, and is a member of the Bars of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Brian received his law degree with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2012, where he was a Managing Editor of the Journal of Corporation Law. Prior to law school, Brian graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Northern Iowa. Prior to joining Ackermann & Tilajef, Brian was the principal officer of his own law firm, where he represented plaintiffs in employment matters, including employment discrimination cases. Brian also worked for private law firms as general counsel and practicing civil litigation.

Since joining the Firm in 2016, Jaclyn has operated as a legal assistant, litigation paralegal, and most recently, the office administrator for the Firm. She completed a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in History and Geography/Environmental Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011, and worked for a real estate law firm for five years as a senior legal assistant before joining Ackermann & Tilajef. In addition to assisting the Firm and all staff with administrative and legal duties, Jaclyn is also a part owner of, and the Case Manager for, Employment Mediation Corp., which provides neutral resolution services for employment cases of any kind.

Amanda joined the Firm’s Tacoma office as a legal assistant in 2017, and was promoted to a paralegal in 2018 before leaving in April 2019. Amanda returned to Ackermann & Tilajef in February 2022, as the firm’s senior paralegal. In 2024, she became a licensed attorney in Washington. Amanda received her law degree from Seattle University School of Law in 2023. Prior to law school, Amanda graduated cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree with a double major in Hispanic Studies and Chinese Studies from Pacific Lutheran University in 2016, and her paralegal certificate from Tacoma Community College in 2018.