Bio

Richard Zitrin has been licensed to practice law in California and New York for four decades. He has tried over fifty cases to verdict, from murder cases to products liability and malpractice, among others. He has been certified in California as a trial specialist in both criminal law and legal malpractice law. He also has spent over forty years teaching at two Bay Area law schools, primarily teaching Legal Ethics and also teaching Trial Practice. He has written three previous books, including The Moral Compass of the American Lawyer: Truth, Justice, Power, and Greed, and over one hundred published articles. He has published in periodicals from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle to the National Law Journal, the Sporting News, and NINE: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture.

In 2019, Richard was awarded California Bar’s statewide Harry Sondheim Award for “outstanding long-term contribution to the advancement of attorney professional standards in California.” Other awards include the national American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico award for service in support of the public good, and statewide and local awards for his pro bono work and for promoting equality and diversity. He was the founding director of the University of San Francisco’s Center for Applied Legal Ethics, Chair and Special Advisor to the California State Bar’s ethics committee, and technical advisor to the feature film Class Action, where he had a speaking role in a scene with Gene Hackman. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and New York University School of Law.

Richard was born in Brooklyn and raised in New York. Before law school he dove into New York City politics, and then dropped out of law school to sing songs he wrote while passing the hat at clubs in Greenwich Village and driving a NYC taxicab to make ends meet. He has lived in San Francisco since 1973. In his free time, he can be found playing saxophone or full court basketball or eating at his Italian restaurant. His wife, three adult children, and two grandchildren all live in the Bay Area.