Arthur William Lazear

Arthur Lazear has practiced law for more than 30 years, helping to obtain successful results for worthy clients nationwide. Mr. Lazear has prosecuted some of the biggest class actions ever litigated in employment law, but has never abandoned his level of personal attention to each client, which is the firm’s hallmark.

Mr. Lazear’s father was a janitor, a Russian immigrant who worked nights in a tireless effort to provide his children the hope of a better life, that they might realize the American Dream.  The example set by his father inspired Mr. Lazear’s lifelong commitment to protecting and enforcing the rights of working men and women at the hands of unethical or careless employers. He began his career arbitrating on behalf of labor union employees, including steelworkers, communications workers, federal government employees, and of course, janitors, completing more than 100 labor arbitrations in his storied career.

In the Continental Can cases, Mr. Lazear, along with Dan McIntyre, an in-house counsel for the Steelworkers, represented hundreds of workers at plants nationwide who were discriminated against by being laid off illegally to defer or deny their entitlement to pension benefits, in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).  Ultimately, after multiple, lengthy trials, the firm recovered nearly half-billion dollars of damages for the workers.

In the Pacific States Steel case, which has been in and out of litigation since 1979, Mr. Lazear fought successfully to force the company to pay hundreds of steelworkers’ their promised lifetime medical benefits.  After their plant was shut down, he was able to secure the land and the plant itself as collateral against the amounts owed the many pensioners. After convincing the United States District Court to force the company to turn over to the plaintiffs the large piece of contaminated property in Union City, California, which had held the plant, Lazear’s diligence ultimately saw the land remediated, sold, and developed into 800 homes, with tens of millions of dollars in proceeds distributed to the plaintiff class.

Having tried dozens of employment cases to verdict, Mr. Lazear has also fought for employees’ rights at the California Supreme Court, at the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and at numerous other courts in California and nationwide.

Mr. Lazear has not only helped empower employees in the workplace, but has tried to verdict complex matters relating to medical malpractice, commercial disputes, and land use. The common theme of Mr. Lazear’s high-quality, diverse representation is that he works to make a positive societal impact in every case.

Mr. Lazear has trained generations of lawyers how to practice law and how to write persuasive arguments, and his briefs are often used as teaching tools in law schools. He is native of New York, a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley and Boalt Hall School of Law, and remains an avid Cal and East Bay sports fan. Mr. Lazear is married to Angela Lazear, also a firm employee, and they have two children.