Mr. Karakalos has resided in Ventura, California since 2005.  Although a Southern California local, he represents employees throughout California, including agricultural workers, oil and gas workers, textile workers, retail workers, as well as several high-earning executives, in disputes with their employers.

Mr. Karakalos, a Greek/American, was raised in Athens, Greece, where he completed high school at the American Community School of Athens.  Thereafter, he received his undergraduate degree in Economics and Architecture from Grinnell College.  Mr. Karakalos attended Law School the University of Arizona in Tucson where he served as a member of the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law.  As such, Mr. Karakalos brings a diversified approach to the challenges of the legal profession.

Mr. Karakalos’ practice focuses exclusively on employee’s rights, including, but not limited to claims for unpaid overtime, unpaid minimum wages, meal and rest break violations, misclassification, unreimbursed business expenses – on the individual and class-wide levels.  He also represents employees in claims of wrongful termination, retaliation, breach of contract, workplace harassment, hostile work environment, and workplace discrimination.

His employment-law experience comes from over a decade of wage-and-hour litigation at Strauss & Strauss (where Mr. Karakalos continues to work in an “of-counsel” capacity).  In that capacity, Mr. Karakalos was directly responsible for securing over $20,000,000 in damages for California employees.  Mr. Karakalos has been responsible for significant per-person wage and hour class action recoveries in California – with some of his client class members collecting well over six-figures.

Mr. Karakalos has also litigated nuanced issues of first impression relating to unpaid wages on oil platforms off the California coast.  One such case culminated in a hearing before the United States Supreme Court in April 2019 (Parker Drilling v. Management Services, Ltd., v. Newton, 139 Sect 1881 (June 10, 2019)) — one of only 70 cases heard by the SCOTUS that year.  That case’s oral argument can be heard here: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2018/18-389

Prior to joining Strauss & Strauss, Mr. Karakalos worked as an associate attorney at Lascher & Lascher, where he focused on appellate matters, handling a broad spectrum of issues.  In this capacity, he regularly argued in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Mr. Karakalos also practiced civil litigation as an associated at Ferguson Case Orr Paterson LLP, one of the largest law firms in Ventura County.

Mr. Karakalos enjoys playing most sports, but with a focus on basketball, volleyball and tennis. Some of his other interests include travel, movies, architecture and cooking.

Mr. Karakalos is fluent in English and Greek and proficient in Italian.

He and his wife have two children.