Julia Sherwin

Julia Sherwin is an AV Preeminent Rated Lawyer who has successfully tried and settled numerous civil rights cases in federal and state courts.   She began her career in Detroit, Michigan, at Goodman, Eden, Millender & Bedrosian, the first racially integrated law firm in the nation.  She has handled numerous cutting-edge wrongful death and serious injury cases, including the largest civil rights wrongful death settlement in California history at the time ($8.3 million) plus first-in-the-nation reforms requiring a private for-profit jail health care corporation to provide Registered Nurses or higher level caregivers for all patient assessments throughout all of their contracts in the State of California; $6.7 catastrophic injury settlement for a Mom who was permanently disabled by police who broke into her home and smashed her ankle when she insisted that they get a warrant before entering her home to arrest her teenage daughter; $5.5 million for a man who was brutalized and had both hands crushed by deputies after he surrendered to them; $4.35 million medical malpractice settlement for failure to diagnose a cardiac condition in a 9-year-old boy; a case obtaining the State of California’s first mandatory training program in public schools to combat discrimination and harassment against LGBT students and teachers; and a case of first impression nationally to recognize the First Amendment rights of Administrative Law Judges to make decisions free of outside pressure, and many cases involving wrongful death.  She is listed as a Northern California Super Lawyer in San Francisco Magazine, in 2006 and every year since 2008.

Practice Areas: Civil Rights; Constitutional Law; Police Misconduct; Wrongful Death.

Admitted: 1995, Michigan; 1997, California

Law School: Wayne State University, J.D., 1995

College: University of Michigan, A.B., 1990

Member: President (1997) of the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association (ACCTLA); current Vice-President of Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP); Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and Northern District Judicial Conference (2012-2014); former Board member (2007) of the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC); American Association of Justice (AAJ); Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF); State Bar of Michigan; State Bar of California.  Past Executive Board member for the Detroit chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; former Barrister with the American Inns of Court, Detroit.

Reported Cases: Perry v. McGinnis, 209 F.3d 597 (6th Cir. 2000); Heurtebise v. Reliable Business Computers, Inc., 452 Mich. 405, 550 N.W. 2d 243 (1996), cert. den.

Personal: Lives in Oakland and Mendocino County with her husband and law partner, Michael Haddad, and two dogs.  Enjoys hiking, travel, writing, cooking when she has time, and helping people who have suffered injury, or the death of a loved one, at the hands of the government or corporations.  Inspirations include Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi, Thurgood Marshall, and Nelson Mandela.

Born: Detroit, Michigan, 1968