Bryan J. Schwartz

Schwartz said he thinks of himself as more of a civil rights lawyer than a labor and employment lawyer, because he helps vindicate civil rights in the workplace. The plaintiffs’ attorney handles discrimination, whistleblower cases, wage and hour issues and the unique claims of federal employees.

In the last two years, Schwartz has worked on several cases on behalf of Bank of America employees who alleged misclassification and unpaid overtime wages. He obtained a total of $55.4 million in settlements for BofA workers. Boyd et al. v. Bank of America, 13-cv-00561-DOC (C.D. Cal. Jan. 19, 2016); Harris et al. v. Bank of America, 15-cv-07683-VSB (S.D. N.Y. Jan. 31, 2017); Buckingham et al. v. Bank of America, 15-cv-6344-RS (N.D. Cal. March 9, 2017).

Schwartz said large settlements can have a broad impact beyond one employer, starting a ripple effect that can bring about policy change across an industry.

Schwartz, who worked as an investigator with an equal opportunity employer organization before getting into law, said he has always been interested in how workplaces can play a role in our multicultural society.

“The workplace is the best place to create opportunities that can break cycles of poverty and discrimination, because people in workplaces build positive relationships, positive identities of self-worth, become leaders and role models,” he said. “That can help all different kinds of communities thrive and grow when we have workplaces that are diverse and complying with the laws.”

He is immediate past president of FAIR, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to workers’ rights education and increasing diversity in the plaintiffs’ employment bar. He also sits on the executive board of the California Employment Lawyers Association and helped initiate its Employee Justice Fellowship. He helped create CELA’s annual Diversity Summit, which gathers hundreds of labor and employment lawyers to discuss ways to create leadership opportunities for diverse attorneys and overcome bias in the profession.

Schwartz is also a professional photojournalist. His book, “Scattered Among the Nations,” includes photos of and interviews with some of the most isolated Jewish communities in the world.

“The book, my photography and writing, and my law career are all fundamentally motivated by a desire to embrace diversity — to think about a model for how to function effectively as a diverse community,” he said.

— Jennifer Chung Klam