Mark Schallert

Mark Schallert earned his B.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1977, graduating with distinction, and his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1983, Order of the Coif. After law school he joined Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop), where he practiced for over 15 years and made partner for eight of those years. He also served at the Office of the San Francisco Public Defender, where he tried seven criminal jury trials, and served as counsel to the firm on its Professional Liability Committee. Schallert later joined David Doyle to concentrate on plaintiff's employment law. Together they served as lead counsel in Evelyn R. Sosa v. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc., a wage-and-hour class action in Alameda County Superior Court that settled for $13.5 million after more than two years of litigation. He successfully argued an appeal in Joyce Turman v. Turning Point of Central California, obtaining a published opinion that reversed an adverse verdict in a hostile work environment case. Among his notable matters, he served as lead trial counsel for six banks seeking recovery on guaranteed investment contracts from Executive Life Insurance Company; after three trials and three appeals, clients received judgments totaling $1.5 billion. He also won a civil-rights trial on behalf of a parolee's family subjected to an unlawful search by the Department of Corrections, resulting in over $600,000 in emotional distress damages and $2.1 million in attorneys' fees. Schallert continues to focus on wage-and-hour class actions and claims for gender discrimination and sexual harassment.