David M. deRubertis is the principal in The deRubertis Law Firm, APC, where he focuses on trying employment cases of all types for employees, catastrophic personal injury or wrongful death matters for the injured party, and contingency business-litigation matters. A substantial part of Mr. deRubertis’ practice consists of serving as last-minute, “eve of trial” lead trial counsel.
Mr. deRubertis’ honors include: “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) (2014); “Best Lawyers - Lawyer of the Year - Employment Law - Individuals” (Los Angeles) (2014 & 2018); California Lawyer of the Year - Employment Law (CLAY Award) (2014 & 2024); Top 100 Lawyers in California by Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal (2023 & 2024); Titan of the Plaintiff’s Bar by Law360 (2023); Employment Law MVP by Law360 (2022); National Law Journal Employment Law Trailblazers (2021 & 2023); National Law Journal Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer (2023); Am Law Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” (June 2022); Top 100 Southern California Super Lawyer from (2011 - 2024); California’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers - National Trial Lawyers (2008 - 2024); Top Labor & Employment Lawyer by Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal (2009 - 2024); Joseph Posner Award from the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) (2011) (youngest-ever recipient); Finalist for “Consumer Attorney of the Year” (2023) and three-time Finalist “Street Fighter of the Year” (2014, 2015 & 2024) by Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC); and Finalist for “Elite Trial Lawyers - Employment” (2023 & 2024) and “Winning Litigators” (2024) by National Law Journal.
Mr. deRubertis is an Associate member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and has participated in its annual “Masters in Trial” program. Having tried dozens of cases with experience in both state and federal courts, Mr. deRubertis has secured multiple record-setting employment jury verdicts as lead trial counsel, including his $464.5 million dollar jury verdict in Martinez/Page vs. Southern California Edison, et al., which is the largest contested employment-related jury verdict in U.S. history. He has also obtained seven- or eight-figure emotional distress verdicts in employment trials not only from both state and federal court juries, but also in a bench trial (2018) and a private arbitration (2021). Most recently, in the last approximately two years in employment trials, deRubertis as lead trial counsel has obtained five consecutive punitive damage verdicts with individual employment verdicts of $422.5 million, $42.2 million, $41.49 million, $20 million and $11.2 million. In both 2022 and 2023, he secured the largest employment-related jury verdict in the country. From 2014 through 2023, the Daily Journal recognized five different jury verdicts deRubertis achieved as lead counsel as among the “Top Plaintiff Verdicts” in California for those years and in 2017 another jury verdict deRubertis achieved as lead counsel was recognized by Courtroom View Network (www.cvn.com) as among its nationwide “Top 10 Most Impressive Plaintiffs’ Verdicts of 2017.” Demonstrating his versatility, in addition to his trial work deRubertis has personally briefed and argued many appeals in both state and federal courts, including serving as lead appellate counsel for briefing and oral argument in four separate employment law cases before the California Supreme Court.
Mr. deRubertis is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) and he was previously a member of the Executive Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA), the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) and was a Founding Director of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers’ Charities.
Updated Sep 2024
