Taylor E. DeRosa

From a drum kit to a courtroom

Taylor graduated early from Belmont University in Nashville with a degree in Music Business, then spent years as a professional drummer, touring internationally.

The work took him to nationally recognized stages and major festivals, and onto television and radio: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Later… with Jools Holland, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and World Café.

Touring teaches a particular kind of discipline. You prepare for months, you get one take in front of a room full of people, and nobody in that room cares how tired you are. It is closer to trial work than most lawyers would guess.

After years on the road, he wanted to build something with a longer half-life. He earned a Juris Doctor and a Master of Business Administration from Saint Louis University in 2017, moved to Southern California, and was admitted to the California Bar in January 2018.

Litigation gave him the same intensity he had found in music. The difference was who it was for.

Nearly a decade of litigation, on the employee’s side

Taylor began his legal career at Rizio Lipinsky, where he trained under experienced trial lawyers and handled employee-side employment cases, including matters taken to trial.

He concentrates his practice on employment law for workers: wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation and whistleblower claims, wage and hour violations, disability accommodation and leave, and severance agreements.

He also represents injured people in personal injury matters, handles civil rights claims under the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civil Code §51 and following), and brings a business litigation background to complex commercial disputes.

His approach to a difficult case is the one he brought to a difficult piece of music. Preparation long before anyone is watching. A theory that holds when it is tested in front of people.

In February 2025, that preparation produced a $41,098,250 verdict, as trial counsel with Rizio Lipinsky, in Carmell v. Janet’s Enterprises, Inc., et al., San Bernardino County Superior Court: a workplace retaliation, constructive discharge, and whistleblower retaliation case tried with Gregory G. Rizio and Daren H. Lipinsky while Taylor was an attorney at that firm.

Top Verdict ranked that result #2 on its “Top 10 Labor & Employment Verdicts in California, 2025” and #14 on its “Top 20 Verdicts in California, 2025.”

That verdict (the case, the court, the date, and the attribution) is the record this page cites, stated in full and nothing beyond it.

Every case is different. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome; each result depends on the specific facts and law of that matter.

More detail on outcomes is on the results page.

Recognition

Five organizations have recognized this work. Each is cited in full (organization, category, and years) in the credentials list below. In 2025, the Employment Rights Section of the American Association for Justice presented its Employment Excellence Award to the trial team in Carmell v. Janet’s Enterprises, Inc., of which Taylor was a member at the firm where the case was tried.

Each organization applies its own selection criteria. These lists describe work already done. They are not a prediction about your case.

Why he built a boutique firm

DeRosa Law Firm is a boutique practice built on a plain structural promise: the person you meet at the first conversation is the person who handles the case, at the deposition, in the negotiation, and at trial.

That is the whole design.

Taylor is a sole practitioner. That is the design, not a limitation. The attorney who takes your call is the attorney who reads your personnel file, drafts your complaint, takes the depositions, argues the motions, and stands up at trial. Nothing gets handed off to a junior associate you have never met.

Most people who call have never sued anyone and never wanted to. So the first conversation is not a pitch.

What to expect working with him:

• A free, confidential case review by phone or video.
• A candid assessment, including when the honest answer is that the law does not reach what happened to you.
• Contingency-fee representation in most matters. There is no attorney’s fee unless we obtain a recovery for you. Clients may be responsible for court costs and litigation expenses, as set out in the written fee agreement.
• One point of contact, from intake through resolution.
• In employment matters, he represents employees. Not employers.

Most of our cases are filed in Orange County Superior Court. Where the employer or defendant sits in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, or Riverside County, Taylor files and appears there: Los Angeles Superior Court, San Bernardino Superior Court, Riverside Superior Court.