Carney R. Shegerian 

Carney Shegerian has won more than 100 jury trials, including 50 that secured seven figures or more, which has led to numerous accolades and to his popular classification as “The People’s Attorney.”

As the founder of Shegerian & Associates in Los Angeles, he emphasizes how much he enjoys practicing labor and employment law on behalf of plaintiffs who have encountered injustice in the workplace.

“It’s an area where you feel like you do direct good,” he said. “I like to help people who were put into a really bad position — not just someone who’s lost a job, but someone who’s lost a career, someone who’s lost their livelihood, someone who’s lost access to their financial stability. These cases put us in a position where we can help people who’ve been really harmed, and that’s my favorite part of it.”

A prime example of this occurred when he fought on behalf of Andrew Rudnicki, who had been wrongfully terminated by Farmers Insurance within months of his anticipated testimony in a FEHA case. The jury awarded $5.4M in compensatory damages and a punitive damages award of $150M against Farmers Insurance Exchange and Farmers Group Inc.

Shegerian noted that Rudnicki had worked for Farmers for more than 37 years as a devoted employee and executive.

“He had done an amazing job for them for years and saved them literally tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said, “so it always helps if a juror or jury sees how invested this particular person is in their job. It’s not just someone who has lost a job. They were someone who was super invested, super motivated, which makes those losses that much more painful. I think that’s understandable to a jury.”

—Kathryn Stelmach Artuso