Al Meyerhoff

ALBERT H. MEYERHOFF has practiced for more than 30 years in labor, civil rights and environmental law. After graduating from Cornell Law School in 1972, he joined California Rural Legal Assistance representing farm workers and the rural poor. These efforts included the landmark case of CAAP v. Regents of the University of California, challenging the use of public research funds to promote agricultural mechanization. He also litigated a host of state and federal civil rights cases involving racial discrimination in employment, voting and public education, including Maria P. v. Riles, invalidating a California statute excluding undocumented children from California schools.

In 1981, Mr. Meyerhoff joined the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national environmental organization, as Director of their Public Health Program. In NRDC vs. Gorsuch he successfully challenged dozens of Reagan era regulatory decisions made behind closed doors. His litigation concerning toxic substances and occupational health including successful challenges to the continued use of cancer-causing pesticides (Les v. Reilly), the exclusion of women of a child-bearing age from the workplace (Love v. Thomas) and the California Governor's failure to comply with Proposition 65, an anti-toxics law (AFL-CIO v. Deukmejian). During his 17 years with NRDC, Mr. Meyerhoff testified more than 50 times before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Mr. Meyerhoff has authored numerous articles for scholarly and general publications, including the Stanford Law Review, EPA Journal, Environmental Law Quarterly, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. Most recently, these include the National Law Journal ("Coming Soon: Enron II"; "No Premanent Underclass;" "Pensions at Risk"). The Washington Post ("Something is Rotten in the Food Chain"); the LA Times ("Kicking the Teeth Out of Class Actions"; "No on Proposition 86"); and the Philadelphia Inquirer ("Free Trade With Truly Free People"). He has appeared regularly on such programs as CBS News 60 Minutes, ABC 20/20, NBC Dateline, Good Morning America, The Today Show and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and has been an invited speaker at the Harvard Business School, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Sciences and the AFL-CIO.

Since joining Lerach Coughlin, a class action firm, in 1998, Mr. Meyerhoff has been lead counsel in several labor and environmental cases, including UNITE v. The Gap, contesting the sale of garments manufactured under sweatshop conditions in the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands, and Public Citizen v. US DOT, challenging cross border trucking from Mexico in violation of U.S. environmental laws. He also participated in Kasky v. Nike, a false advertising case involving sweatshops and Sierra Club v. Cheney, the "closed door" energy task force case. He is co counsel for the class in the Enron shareholder fraud case.

Until recently when his term expired, Mr. Meyerhoff served on the Sierra Club Board of Trustees. In 2006, he was selected as Trial Lawyer of the Year by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and received lifetime achievement awards from both the ACLU and the League of Conservation Voters. Next month, he will receive a lifetime "Social Justice" award from Cornell Law School, his alma mater. He believes he must be getting old after all.