Bryan J. Schwartz 

As a leading civil rights employment attorney, Bryan J. Schwartz has successfully litigated individual and class action cases nationwide, seeking to force corporations and the government to reform their practices and hold wrongdoers liable.

Schwartz was presented with the Legal Aid at Work Meritorious Service Award for 2023.

“We’ve kept the firm small,” he said of his six-lawyer shop. “But I can get what I need. Even when we co-counsel with other firms, we’re still only at a tiny fraction of the huge numbers of lawyers at our opponents’ command.”

In early summer, while Elon Musk promoted a cage match with a business rival, Schwartz and colleagues were already grappling in the legal arena with the Tesla, Inc. CEO over a huge potential class action.

In April, the state Supreme Court declined to review Schwartz’s appellate win for African American Tesla production workers after Musk’s lawyers failed in an effort to compel arbitration of workplace racism and discrimination complaints. Vaughn v. Tesla, Inc., RG17882082 (Alameda Co. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 13, 2017).

Schwartz savors the image of brawling wrestlers in the ring. “Yeah, I see myself jumping down from the ropes with an elbow,” he laughed.

As soon as the high court rejected Tesla’s attempt to further appeal the arbitration issue, Schwartz and co-counsel Lawrence A. Organ of the California Civil Rights Law Group and Matthew C. Helland of Nichols Kaster LLP filed their class certification motion. As many as 6,000 African American Tesla workers may be covered, Schwartz said. The motion was accompanied by declarations from 240 workers detailing racism in the Fremont factory they called the “Plantation” or “Slave Ship.”

“Tesla hung up the case for years with their arbitration claims,” Schwartz said. “But we used the time to work with the only evidence we have so far — how the class members experienced overwhelming proof of racism at the factory.”

In March 2023, after nearly 17 years of litigation, Schwartz attained a $37.5 million class settlement that will pay more than $100,000 to each of 244 disabled individuals who were denied careers in the Foreign Service at the U.S. State Department. The deal includes a policy overhaul that allowed more than 100 of the plaintiffs to immediately receive new job opportunities there. Meyer et al. v. Blinken, 531-2015-00092X (EEOC, filed Jan. 8, 2007).

“We don’t give up,” Schwartz said.

In another effort for Foreign Services officers and applicants, Schwartz won class certification last year for up to 20,000 people denied medical clearances required for their positions with no consideration of reasonable accommodation for their disabilities. That case took 11 years to reach this point. Sava v. Blinken, 570-2012-00754X (EEOC, filed May 16, 2011).

“We’re in discussions with State Department attorneys to see about a total policy overhaul and significant recovery,” Schwartz said.

—John Roemer