Jeffrey B. Demain is a partner emeritus at Altshuler Berzon LLP, a San Francisco public interest law firm, where for 36 years he practiced labor and employment, civil rights, and First Amendment law, representing international, national, regional, state-wide, and local labor unions, trust funds, public interest organizations, public entities, and individuals in numerous cases before trial and appellate courts in the federal and state systems, as well as before administrative agencies and arbitrators. In addition to litigation, Jeff regularly advised clients on legal matters, legislation, and regulatory compliance, and represented them in collective bargaining negotiations and government investigations, especially with regard to the National Labor Relations Act, the Labor Management Relations Act, and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. He also specialized in defending freedom of speech and the right to petition government under California’s anti-SLAPP law.

Jeff has been listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” since 2006; in “Northern California Superlawyers” for labor and employment law since 2009; and in the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers” since 2019. He was named the 2022 “Lawyer of the Year” for “Employment law – Individuals” in San Francisco by “The Best Lawyers in America.”

Jeff received his B.A. from Brandeis University, where he graduated summa cum laude and received highest departmental honors and the Louis D. Brandeis Scholar award; he received his M.A. from the University of California, Irvine, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow; and he received his J.D. from the law school at UC Berkeley, where he was Order of the Coif. Before he began his practice, he served as a law clerk to Chief Judge James R. Browning of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Representative matters:

• Obtained a ruling that a national aluminum manufacturer violated the National Labor Relations Act by unlawfully locking out 3,000 of its employees, and ordering it to pay them what was, at that time, thought to be the highest backpay award in the history of the Act.
• Obtained a defense verdict following a ten-week federal court jury trial in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit seeking to impose vicarious liability on a union for alleged post-strike harassment of strike breakers by union members who had participated in a nationwide strike.
• Overturned on appeal a California Superior Court decision approving a settlement agreement that impaired the statutory and contractual rights of public school teachers over the objection of the teachers’ union (which had not agreed to the settlement), on the grounds that the approval of the settlement violated the teachers’ due process right to an adjudication of the merits of the underlying claim and the requirements of the California statute regarding judgments based on settlements.
• Obtained an appellate reversal of a jury verdict holding a union and individual strikers liable to a strike breaker for picket-line speech.
• Obtained an appellate reversal of a California Superior Court decision denying a motion under California’s anti-SLAPP statute to dismiss a civil lawsuit seeking money damages for a union’s alleged conduct in assisting the General Counsel of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board to prosecute the union’s unfair labor practice charge.
• Obtained a dismissal under California’s anti-SLAPP statute of a lawsuit seeking to impose tort liability on a public sector union for its proposals in collective bargaining.
• Successfully defended on appeal a dismissal under California’s anti-SLAPP statute of a malicious prosecution lawsuit against a public sector union arising from charges the union had filed against an employer with California’s Public Employment Relations Board.
• Successfully defended public sector unions in numerous cases brought by anti-union foundations seeking refunds of union dues and fair share fees in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018).
• Obtained a dismissal under California’s anti-SLAPP statute of a defamation suit brought against a legal aid organization and one of its staff attorneys.