Barke v. Banks: Who are the Lawyers?

David Schwarz, Lead Counsel

David Schwarz is a litigation partner at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP.  He has extensive experience in litigating constitutional issues, with particular emphasis on First Amendment and labor issues. Mr. Schwarz was lead counsel in Gerawan Farming Inc. v. ALRB,  a series of constitutional challenges to California’s compulsory arbitration process, known as “Mandatory Mediation and Conciliation,” whereby the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board would impose a collective bargaining agreement on farm workers and their employers.

He also was lead counsel in Fowler Packing Co. v. Lanier, a successful Ninth Circuit equal protection challenge to a California wage and hour statute which “carved out” certain agricultural growers from the protections of the law at the behest of the United Farmworkers of America. In 2016, he wrote an amicus brief in support of CIR’s plaintiffs in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Practicing in California, Schwarz has argued before every California Court of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, as well as before the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.