Mark A. Chavez
Chair, Public Citizen Foundation
Mark Chavez received his Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School in 1979. During law school he served as a judicial extern for the Hon. Mathew O. Tobriner of the California Supreme Court, was a co-founder and the first managing editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and a founding member of the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation.
Mr. Chavez joined the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., after graduating from law school. He spent three years representing executive branch agencies and the U.S. in labor, employment, housing and national security cases filed in federal courts around the country. In 1983, Mr. Chavez entered private practice working first at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in San Francisco, Calif. and subsequently at Farrow, Bramson, Chavez & Baskin in Walnut Creek, Calif. In 1994, Mr. Chavez founded the law firm of Chavez & Gertler LLP, which he successfully managed for 25 years. He is now of counsel to Kemnitzer, Barron and Krieg. The firm’s attorneys represent plaintiffs in consumer, employment, and civil rights class actions. Mr. Chavez is A-V rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer ten times.
Mr. Chavez has represented plaintiffs in a wide variety of class actions, private attorney general cases and other complex civil litigation matters involving financial services, lending practices and insurance charges.
He has served or is currently serving as lead or co-lead counsel in more than 125 class actions filed in federal and state courts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington. These cases have resulted in some of the largest recoveries ever achieved in consumer class actions.
Mr. Chavez was one of the eight founders of the National Association of Consumer Advocates and is its former co-chair. He is a former board member of the National Consumer Law Center, Disability Rights Advocates, Public Justice, Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation and Consumer Attorneys of California.