J. Bernard Alexander III

Alexander prides himself on the deft handling of difficult cases, on educating other attorneys and on a lineage of personal learning he traces to the employment law pioneer Joseph Posner.

In May the City of Huntington Beach paid $2.5 million to settle claims by Alexander’s clients, two senior deputy city attorneys now aged 75 and 64 who said in an age discrimination suit their boss sought to force them out of their jobs, in one case successfully. Neal Moore and Scott Field v. Michael Gates and City of Huntington Beach, 3-2019-01071686-CU-OE-CJC (Orange Co. Super. Ct., filed May 21, 2019).

“One was a lead trial attorney and the other an administrative law expert,” Alexander said. “The city attorney tried to make them look incompetent through unjustified demotions because he was new and felt threatened by experienced people. He acted like a god requiring deference, but he was not the type of leader you want. He cost his city a lot of money. We have attorney fees in the seven figures.”

It was hardly a first for Alexander, who has been in practice since 1987. Since 2014 he has conducted the annual California Employment Lawyers Association Trial College, which he founded. He is an adjunct professor at the USC Gould School of Law. This year he was admitted as a fellow to the American College of Trial Lawyers; in 2020 he was named a fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers.

Alexander said his chief winning tactic is to take head on a typical defense maneuver. “You want to undercut the effort to make your plaintiff look bad, which the defense tries in every case. You question the defense witnesses to establish your client’s story, and you can change the complexion of the case if the defense isn’t legitimate or fair or able to follow the law.”

He learned from Posner, an Encino trial and appellate lawyer who died in 2000. Posner was credited with altering the employment law landscape by being among the first to sue successfully for wrongful termination, sexual harassment and workplace discrimination. “He used to write columns for The Daily Journal, and I cut them out and saved them in a notebook,” Alexander said. “They amounted to a roadmap to plaintiff-side employment law.”

Alexander added that he was honored to have received the CELA Joe Posner Award in 2016. “I loved that,” he said.

--John Roemer