Margo Hasselman
Margo Hasselman joined the firm as an associate attorney in 2003 and became a shareholder in 2009. She was selected as one of Northern California’s Rising Stars for 2009, 2010, and 2011 by Law & Politics magazine. In addition to representing individual clients in disability and pension claims, Ms. Hasselman has served, or is serving, as counsel in several class multiplaintiff actions in the employee benefits and civil rights fields, including representation of union pension and welfare funds against investment managers and consultants for investment in Bernard Madoff’s fraudulent investment scheme; a lawsuit against the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission for violating the transportation equity rights of minority bus riders; and actions representing employees who lost significant retirement savings as a result of employer maintenance and encouragement of investment in employer stock when the company was failing.
Ms. Hasselman is a frequent writer and speaker on employee benefits issues. She is a co-chair of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section, Employee Benefits Committee’s subcommittee on Welfare Benefit Plan Claims. Recent speaking engagements include the American Bar Association’s National Institute on ERISA Basics 2011 and 2010 on “Fiduciary Standards,” the Thompson Reuters 2009 ERISA Litigation Conference on both “Benefit Claims Litigation after Glenn” and “ERISA Remedies,” and a 2009 nationwide BNA teleconference titled “ERISA Class Actions – Up Close and Personal: An In-Depth Look at the Myriad of Complex and Ever-Evolving Issues.” Ms. Hasselman has also written and contributed to articles regarding aspects of employee benefits law and contributed to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. Closer to home, she serves on the Advisory Board of the East Bay Community Law Center.
Ms. Hasselman is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Honors and Highest Distinction and of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, where she served as an Articles Editor of Ecology Law Quarterly and graduated Order of the Coif.