Eric S. Casher
Associate - Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson
Eric S. Casher was born and raised in the Bay Area. A product of public schools, he went on to U.C. Berkeley, where he majored in Sociology and minored in African-American Studies. After working for several years, he enrolled at UC Hastings College of the Law, where he was Vice-President of BLSA and active in student government. While in law school, Eric served as a judicial extern, a tutor, summer in-house counsel at Hewlett Packard and a summer associate for a large firm. Eric balanced all of this with his passion for critical race theory and social justice, which led him to join the Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal, eventually becoming the Journal's Symposium Editor his 2L year and Editor-in-Chief his 3L year. The Hastings community recognized his leadership that same year by awarding him Student Leader of the Year for 2006.
Eric is currently an associate at Meyers Nave in Oakland, California, and his legal practice involves the areas of Public Law, Public Contracts and various forms of complex litigation. He represents government entities, municipalities, commissions, agencies and some private clients on a range of public law issues including public contracts, construction, and code compliance. His previous work as an associate at Howrey included pro bono work and spanned the spectrum of construction-related matters. In 2010, the Bar Association of San Francisco recognized Eric for his work with the Volunteer Legal Service Program's (VLSP) Federal Pro Bono Project, awarding him with the 2010 Volunteer in Public Service Award. Eric, represented an indigent plaintiff in a civil rights suit for injuries he sustained while in custody at Santa Rita jail. The client alleged that medical staff at the jail failed to provide adequate care when he suffered a stroke, thereby causing permanent disabilities. At the time Casher took on the case, the client was in pro se and in danger of having his case dismissed for failure to prosecute; his disabilities compounded the challenges many pro se litigants face trying to represent themselves in federal court. To serve the needs of his client, Casher delved into the complicated world of Medical Malpractice and Civil Rights Law. He took eight depositions of jail staff and experts, learned medical terminology and theories, and ultimately represented his client on his own at a settlement conference, where he secured a highly favorable result. His thrilled client told VLSP, "I know you said you'd find me a lawyer, but I didn't know that you were going to find me such a GREAT lawyer!"
Eric juggles his legal career with a very active political one. While a junior associate at a large law firm - a daunting challenge in and of itself - he was heavily involved in grassroots organizing as the Northern California Coordinator of Young Lawyers for Obama (now Gen44). Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign for then Senator Barack Obama, Eric conducted field organizing in Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico, and organized voter protection and election protection trainings in Port Arthur, Texas. In addition, Eric helped organize several campaign events and fundraisers and rose through the ranks eventually being appointed to the National Finance Committee for Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign. "I love practicing law, love being an attorney," he says, "but I also like to do political work on the side that has an impact on people's lives."
In part due to his support and hard work for the campaign, Eric was chosen to be a U.S. Speaker and Specialist Grant Recipient for the US State Department. As a U.S. speaker Eric lectured in the African countries of Namibia and Zambia on African American political progress and the importance of youth participation in electoral politics. Eric later traveled to Sweden as a U.S. Speaker to lecture on youth participation in electoral politics and constituency group outreach in the Obama campaign. Busy as he is, Eric still found the time to sit on the Board of Directors of Coro and Global Exchange, Advisory Board of New Leaders Council, and served as a Vice Chair of the Construction Barrister's group of the Bar Association of San Francisco.
Eric also chaired the Young Professionals' Finance Committee that supported Kamala Harris' successful campaign for California Attorney General. Eric was present every step of the way on her campaign trail, also belonging to her Finance Committee, and organizing many campaign events. This is in addition to being a founding member of Generation 44, which was born out of his work on the Obama campaign.
Finally, Eric is very dedicated to his community, volunteering for a number of local non-profits, and community service events. Sonya Clark-Herrera, the Executive Director of the Mural Music & Arts Project, an arts-based youth development program based on East Palo Alto, CA, has this to say about Eric: "Eric has been an enthusiastic supporter of MMAP, attending our community events and speaking directly with our youth. It's extremely important for young black men in our program to see someone that not only looks like them and cares about them, but that is has been very successful in his career. He isn't just a role model, he is THE role model." For all his many achievements, Eric was recognized by IMPACT-DC in March 2011 as an Impact Leader, served as the keynote speaker at the UC Hastings Black Law Students Association Graduation and was named the UC Hastings BLSA 2010-2011 Alumni of the Year. And somehow, Eric manages to juggle all of these responsibilities while also being a proud husband to his wife Susana and father to his son Nico, 1.
