Alex Tramontano ’11 Standing Up For What’s Right

Even before his undergraduate years in his home state of Massachusetts, Alex Tramontano ‘11 had thought about attending law school. During his last two years at UMass, he worked for the Police Department, which gave him a good foundation and desire to join the prosecutorial arm of the police force –essentially the District Attorney’s office or the County Prosecutor’s office.

“I chose California Western because it was very strong in the area that I wanted to work,” said Tramontano. “The school had internship and externship type programs, specifically, the Certified Legal Intern program at the DA’s office that really interested me.”

“Working for the Police force gave me relevant experience and certainly opened my eyes to a broader world of what was going on with respect to crime and society around me,” continued Tramontano. “California Western was the perfect fit for me and had the added benefit of being in San Diego, where coincidently my brother lived.”

While at California Western, Tramontano worked in the DA’s Office and became a certified legal intern with ambitions to transition full-time into that office upon graduation.

However, the recession happened, and the DA’s office instituted an 18-month hiring freeze, so Tramontano had to rethink his career plans.

“I joined the insurance fraud division as my second rotation at the District Attorney’s office as well as taking the insurance law and litigation class at California Western with Adjunct Professor James Holtz,” explained Tramontano.

He excelled in that class, and while studying for the bar, Professor Holtz told him his law firm was looking to hire an associate. He ultimately got the job and started working in private practice for a public entity and insurance defense firm.

Two years later Tramontano transitioned to another law firm where he practiced construction litigation for the next five years. At Lorber, Greenfield, and Polito, LLP he concentrated on construction defect-related defense work. “I kind of got the taste for construction litigation,” he said. “I spent ten years on the defense side, representing large companies, insurance companies, and private clients in pretty high-dollar value litigation. All related to the values of the construction projects and the defects that were alleged. This included a number of notable high-rise residential buildings in downtown San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.”

From his police experience to law school and throughout his career, Tramontano has always been driven by the desire to stand up for what is right.

“In real-world litigation settings, it’s important to have courage under fire,” says Tramontano. “It’s important not to wilt under whatever comes at you, because ultimately if you are doing what you believe is right, you’ll go far in this world.”

Nothing exemplifies Tramontano’s philosophy better than his current workload as an associate attorney at the San Diego office of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.

He is part of the team that recently won a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of StarKist Co. et al. v. Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative Inc. et al.

Wolf Haldenstein is lead class counsel for the end payer plaintiffs in the underlying class action lawsuit. The matter involved a request for a writ of certiorari to the

U.S. Supreme Court by defendant StarKist Co. from the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision in Olean Wholesale Grocery Coop., Inc. v. Bumble Bee Foods LLC upholding the district court’s order granting class certification.

The Department of Justice brought a case against all the major packaged seafood distributors and their executives for price fixing at every level with a significant worldwide market impact. This had been discovered in part by a whistleblower’s letter during the sale of one of those businesses.

“My office, working with specialist David Frederick at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, PLLC, filed a coordinated opposition to the petition for certiorari on behalf of the plaintiff classes,” explained Tramontano.

“We argued, on behalf of the end-payor plaintiffs and the coordinated plaintiff classes, that the Supreme Court should decline to review the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision. The high court agreed, and the case will now continue to trial in the District Court for the Southern District of California located in San Diego, before the Hon. Dana M. Sabraw.”

The Supreme Court decision has been a proud highlight in Tramontano’s career, and although there is much hard work ahead, he remains confident of a successful outcome.

“It’s frightening to think about what happened to a basic staple like tuna, but it kind of gives you heart to know that people will still stand up for what’s right,” said Tramontano. “People still write these whistleblower letters that may at the time seem somewhat insignificant, but in the light of what’s come to pass, it can make all the difference.”