Stephen P. Berzon to Deliver Preiskel/Silverman Lecture on March 30

Stephen P. Berzon, founding partner of Altshuler Berzon LLP, will deliver the 2014–2015 Robert H. Preiskel and Leon Silverman Program on the Practicing Lawyer and the Public Interest on March 30, 2015, at 4:30 pm in the Faculty Lounge. Berzon’s lecture is titled “Fixing Wealth Inequality: How Lawyers Can Be Part of the Solution.”

Berzon specializes in major litigation, primarily in the areas of labor and employment, environment and public health, campaign and election, and constitutional law. He practices at the trial and appellate levels.

After attending Harvard Law School, Berzon was a law clerk to Judge Alvin B. Rubin of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Before founding Altshuler Berzon, Berzon practiced with both the Contra Costa Legal Services Foundation and the National Housing and Economic Development Law Project of the University of California, Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall) as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow, and with the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County. He was then the legal director of the Children's Defense Fund, a public interest organization in Washington, D.C., before returning to California in 1977 to start his current firm.

Berzon is a member of the Ninth Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Rules and Internal Operating Procedures, and of the executive committee of the Northern District of California Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He served as a member of the national board of directors of the American Constitution Society, and also as a member of the board of directors of the national AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee. Berzon served as chair of the City of Berkeley Police Review Commission, and as a member of the board of directors of the Urban Strategies Council. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

The Robert H. Preiskel and Leon Silverman Program on the Practicing Lawyer and the Public Interest was established by the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in honor of Robert H. Preiskel ’48 and Leon Silverman ’48 to sponsor lectures and other events celebrating private lawyers’ contributions to the public interest.