User:Eric Alan Isaacson

Eric Alan Isaacson is a graduate of the Duke University School of Law (J.D. 1985) and of the Harvard Divinity School (M.R.P.L. 2022). A member of the California bar, his practice focuses primarily on class-action settlements, attorney's fee awards, and federal civil appeals.

Following his 1985 graduation from the Duke University School of Law, Eric served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable J. Clifford Wallace, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Eric was associated with the Los Angeles office of O'Melveny & Myers from 1986 to 1989, before joining the San Diego office of Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, which has since changed its name to Milberg LLP. On May 1, 2004, west coast partners of that firm founded a new firm currently known as Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Eric left Robbins Geller in 2016 to establish a solo appellate practice as the Law Office of Eric Alan Isaacson.

Eric's legal practice has long focused on complex class actions and federal civil appeals. He pro bono work has included filing amicus curiae briefs on behalf of religious organizations - - including the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, the denomination of which his own church is a member, the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California (f.k.a. Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministery) and the California Council of Churches. That pro bono work included a series of amicus curiae briefs supporting same-sex couples' right to marry, starting in the California Court of Appeal in 2005 through the Supreme Court's decision of Obergefell v. Hodges. Here, for example, is the brief filed on behalf of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, et al. before the California Court of Appeal in California's Marriage Cases which was followed by a brief in California's Supreme Court on behalf of the Unitarian Universalist Association. When litigation shifted to federal court, Eric worked with the California Council of Churches, California Faith for Equality, and the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry to file briefs in the federal challenge to California's Proposition 8. Here, for example, is the California Council of Churches' Ninth Circuit brief in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, and here is its brief before the United States Supreme Court. The California Council of Churches' brief in Obergefell can be found here.

Eric also has filed amicus curiae briefs on behalf of religious organizations and faith leaders in litigation in litigation on other issues. He has filed several briefs in cases challenging government support for discriminatory policies of the Boy Scouts of America, including Winkler v. Gates. His brief in Winkler can be found here. He filed an amicus curiae brief for the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy opposing the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. He also filed a brief on behalf of religious organizations supporting California's law barring licensed therapists from subjecting minors to "therapies" designed to change their sexual orientation.

In recognition of Eric's pro bono work, he received the Unitarian Universalist Association's President's Award for Volunteer Service, presented by the Rev. Dr. William G. Sinkford at the Association's 48th General Assembly in June of 2009.

Examples of published decisions in cases that Eric has briefed and argued include:


 * Chieftain Royalty Co. v. Enervest Energy Institutional Fund XIII-A, L.P., 888 F.3d 455 (10th Cir. 2017) (vacating $17.3 million class-action attorneys' fee award);


 * Makaeff v. Trump University, LLC, 715 F.3d 254 (9th Cir. 2013) (holding Trump University had to prove "actual malice" before proceeding with its libel counterclaim against a former student who accused it of fraud, which on remand resulted in dismissal of Trump University's counterclaim);


 * In re WorldCom Securities Litigation (California Public Employees' Retirement System v. Caboto-Gruppo Intesa, BCI), 496 F.3d 245 (2d Cir. 2007) (reversing district court's ruling that filing of a class-action complaint did not toll the time for filing of individual actions by class members who decided to opt out of the class action and pursue their own litigation before the district court had ruled on a class-certification motion);


 * Sanford v. Memberworks, 483 F.3d 956 (9th Cir. 2007) (reversing order compelling arbitration of telemarketing-fraud claims where plaintiff contested entering the purported contract containing an arbitration clause);


 * Sanchez v. County of San Diego, 464 F.3d 916 (9th Cir. 2006) (briefed and argued for public-assistance applicants required by County District Attorney to submit to searching “home visits” from law enforcement agents), en banc rehearing denied with eight judges dissenting, 483 F.3d 965 (9th Cir. 2007) (a great disappointment);


 * In re Daou Systems, Inc., Securities Litigation, 411 F.3d 1006 (9th Cir. 2005) (reversing dismissal of investors' claims for accounting fraud).

Eric's articles and essays on civil rights, constitutional law, and church-state issues have been published in the University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, the Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal, the Loyola Los Angeles Law Review, the Boston Bar Journal, and the University of New Hampshire's Pierce Law Review. His articles on securities law and class-action litigation have been published in the Akron Law Review, the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, the the San Diego Law Review, and the Elon Law Review.

Eric's profile in the Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute attorney directory includes links to his law-review articles.