SAN FRANCISCO — After a failed attempt at mediation in a wage-and-hour class action a few weeks ago, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker partner Kirby Wilcox tried something different.

He served the lawyers for the certified class of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream workers with 12 boxes crammed with individual settlement offers. Then he tried to get an Alameda County judge to force them to put the offers in the hands of about 3,000 class members.