OAKLAND, CA (November 12, 2024) – The Community Police Review Agency (CPRA) is pleased to announce that Antonio Lawson will serve as CPRA Legal Counsel.
Lawson has more than 30 years of experience litigating civil rights and employment rights. Most recently, he served as Associate Chief Counsel for the California Civil Rights Department (“CRD”). As Associate Chief Counsel, Lawson was a lead counsel in the Department’s most complex cases including DFEH v. Riot Games and CRD v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., two similar sexual harassment and gender discrimination class actions. Lawson also managed the litigation of other class actions and individual complaints at CRD.
Prior to joining CRD, Lawson managed his own firm, Lawson Law Offices, where he represented plaintiffs in individual and class civil rights and labor rights cases. Lawson successfully litigated race discrimination, gender discrimination, age discrimination, privacy and wage/hour cases before the California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, California Superior Courts and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He also cooperatively litigated cases with the U.S. Department of Justice and Regional EEOC offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In 2002, Lawson was retained by the City of Oakland to serve as Special Counsel to the Citizens’ Police Review Board (CPRB), predecessor to the CPRA. Like CPRA, the CPRB was charged with investigating citizen complaints of police misconduct particularly those alleging excessive force or discrimination. As Special Counsel, Lawson provided legal advice and training to the CPRB staff, served as the Hearing Officer at Board Hearings and guided Board Members through disciplinary recommendations. Lawson served as Special Counsel to Oakland’s CPRB for ten years.
In addition to managing his own firm, Lawson spent two years at a major law firm in San Francisco before joining the Oakland firm of Saperstein, Seligman, Mayeda and Goldstein where he litigated employment class actions focusing on race and gender discrimination. Lawson received his A.B in Rhetoric from U.C. Berkeley and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
He assumed his new role on November 9, 2024.
