Eric Paul Lampel

ERIC P. LAMPEL established the firm in 1985, although he has practiced trial law in California since 1980. Leading the firm's Civil & Criminal Litigation Department, Mr. Lampel has extensive experience in employment litigation, serious injury, criminal defense and general commercial litigation. Mr. Lampel served as General Counsel for an innovative New Zealand based international DSL Technology Company and provided HR services to employees in the United Sates, Europe and New Zealand in conjunction with local counsel. Importantly, Mr. Lampel chairs the Criminal Defense Practice Group in the firm.

Mr. Lampel's practice involves all aspects of Civil Rights litigation, employment law, business law, criminal defense, and serious injury/death cases. Mr. Lampel has counseled clients on a variety of topics including job terminations, job discrimination, accommodating disabilities, leaves of absence, personnel policies, and wage and hour issues. Mr. Lampel has also litigated criminal defense and employment cases in both federal and state courts and before numerous administrative agencies. The lawsuits Mr. Lampel has prosecuted or defended include claims of discrimination (racial, gender based, sexual orientation, race, and disability), harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, fraud, defamation and alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Family Medical Leave Act.

Mr. Lampel received a Bachelor of Arts degree, Cum Laude, in Political Science/ Social Ecology from the University of California at Irvine in 1977. He graduated in 1980 with a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Mr. Lampel served as outstanding member of the Jessup International Moot Court Honors Team while at Loyola Law School, and both lived abroad and studied International Law abroad at the University of Oxford, St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, England. http://en.,_Oxford
Mr. Lampel also served as co-founder, principal writer and lead actor of Libel & Slander Night, A Law Revue, a Loyola Law School original production in which the legal profession and other "sacred cows" were lampooned through song, dance and stinging comedy sketches. His sardonic wit and good humor have won over Judges, juries and opposing counsel time and time again.

Mr. Lampel prosecuted the nationally famous Clove Cigarette death case, 1985; Prosecuted sex discrimination case against Lucky Stores, Inc., Henry v. Lucky's 1992 (receiving preliminary judgment of $1,300,+, before punitive damages, and then settled for a confidential sum). In the summer of 2000, Mr. Lampel defended the infamous People of the State of California v. Shantae Molina. Ms. Molina was wrongly charged with the murder of her infant son while defending her home from intruders. Mr. Lampel tried the case to verdict gaining a full acquittal of this innocent young woman; past member, Board of Directors, Laguna Shanti, 1994; Southern California Defense Counsel, past member, Orange County Bar Association, member, Orange County Trial Lawyers, member, Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association, past member, American Bar Association, member. He has served as Judge Pro Tem for the Orange County Superior Court, and as Arbitrator in numerous cases. Prior to forming The Lampel Firm, P.C., Mr. Lampel clerked for, and then joined the firm of Haight, Dickson, Brown & Bonesteel, and later Lazof & Swanson, before starting Lampel Law Corporation in 1985.

Mr. Lampel is a member in good standing of the California Bar Association, and is admitted to practice in numerous Federal District courts, as well as the California and United States Supreme Court.