Clifton W. Albright

Albright, Yee & Schmit • 
Los Angeles & Newport Beach


Clifton W. Albright launched his defense-side labor and employment boutique in 1982 and renamed it Albright, Yee & Schmit APC in 1994. His original partners have retired or moved on, and today, the eight-attorney firm is largely a family affair. 


Three family members are aboard with Albright: his wife Stella M. Albright, who has an MBA in finance as well as a JD, is vice president; son and associate attorney Clifton W. Albright Jr. practices labor and employment law plus general business litigation; and son and office manager Alexander Albright is planning to go to law school. 


The firm won the Orange County Business Journal's Family-Owned Business Award in 2023 and is nominated again this year.


The patriarch noted that the firm is busy. "You'd think there'd be fewer labor and employment cases due to the shift to remote work, but the wage and hour cases roll on," Albright said. "It's true there are fewer sexual harassment cases, because people aren't around each other as much."


Along with several class action employment cases in progress in which Albright is representing clients like All City Management Services Inc. and Konoike-Pacific California Inc., two unusual matters stand out.


In April 2024, a judge in Riverside County dismissed Albright's client, the national fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, from a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a UC Riverside student who died during a hazing ritual.


The local chapter remains a defendant represented by other counsel and the plaintiffs' lawyers have petitioned the court to reverse its summary judgment ruling in favor of Albright's client. Hilliard v. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., RIC1906176 (Riverside Co. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 20, 2019).


"The individual had a rare heart condition that caught up with him," Albright said, adding, "They were asking for over $20 million. We went to mediation with them and tried to get a reasonable figure, but they refused. They wouldn't come down. We had a subsequent mediation request, but they refused. We tried again with them, and the mediator proposed a $7 million ceiling for them and an $800,000 ceiling for all, but they said it wasn't enough."


In another matter, Albright prevailed at the 2nd District Court of Appeal in December 2023 in a ruling that gave the green light to his malicious prosecution claim against Zweiback Fiset & Coleman LLP. Albright's suit arose after he successfully defended his firm from allegations that it bribed an elected official to receive legal work from West Valley Water District.


Albright claimed the Zweiback firm, which represented the water district's former chair, pursued the bribery allegations because Albright was investigating claims of wrongdoing by the former chair. Albright, Yee & Schmit APC et al., v, Zweiback Fiset & Coleman LLP et al., B315967 (2d DCA, filed Sept. 24, 2021).


"I don't like suing lawyers, but this was so malicious I felt we had to address it," Albright said.


-- John Roemer