68 | CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS | CJN.ORG
LOCAL LAWYERS
JANUARY 27, 2017
ANTHONY LAZZARO The Lazzaro Law Firm, LLC NAOMI GRANT
Anthony Lazzaro of Moreland Hills hit the ground running, starting his law firm two years out of law school. “When I started out, I just had two years of experience and I was just one lawyer and I didn’t know how successful I would be,” he said. Ten years later, The Lazzaro Law Firm, LLC in Cleveland has five lawyers and with a combined 60 years of experience in employment law. He has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2011 to 2014 and a Super Lawyer from 2015 to 2017, “To have started something and to have grown it to where it is, we’re definitely at the forefront of handling wage theft claims in Ohio,” Lazzaro said. To date his firm which primarily handles wage theft cases has recovered over $30-million in settlement payments for employees. “It’s cool to see where we started and where we are now. I think the next 10 years will be even more successful than the last.” The biggest case Lazzaro has handled in terms of publicity (“It seemed like
we were on the front page of The Plain Dealer every other day,” he said) was against a retailer that abruptly closed and didn’t pay employees for the last few weeks of work, leaving the employees without health care. After the retailer filed for bankruptcy, the retailer’s board of directors personally funded a settlement of $660,000. “It was a pretty rewarding case for a group of employees who were really upset about how they were treated, so we were glad we were able to get a recovery for them,” he said. Lazzaro said people thank his law firm “all the time” because not only do they recover wages for all of the employees that weren’t paid properly, but in most cases, the employers change their pay practices so that going forward people are being paid properly. “That’s one of the more rewarding aspects because it’s one thing to collect back wages for employees and that
Anthony Lazzaro
City: Moreland Hills Synagogue: Park Synagogue Firm: The Lazzaro Law Firm, LLC Areas of practice: Employment law (wage and hour)
makes a big difference,” he said. “But if you can affect how an employer pays their employees, then you can make a huge impact.” Among the most common charges Lazzaro represents clients for are being misclassified as exempt in overtime laws or misclassifying them as independent contractors. After that, he said, would probably be off-the-clock work and preshift and post-shift work. “Across many industries and types of jobs, a lot of employees have to come in early to start their day or they have to stay late,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe how many employers don’t pay their employees for that work when the law says they’re entitled to be paid for it.”
Though Lazzaro doesn’t have a specific goal for his law firm, he said he believes the firm will file more than 30 class actions this year as it did last year, up significantly from the 10 to 12 it would file for the first several years.
Naomi Grant is the Violet Spevack Editorial Intern.
CIANO & GOLDWASSER, L.L.P.
DEDICATED, DETERMINED AND DILIGENT REPRESENTATION OF CLIENTS IN HIGH-STAKES BUSINESS LITIGATION When individuals and businesses are facing high-stakes litigation, it is essential to work with attorneys who are laser-focused on their clients’ needs and objectives. For almost two decades, Ciano & Goldwasser, LLP, has met the high standards of its clientele in “bet the company”litigation. For the fifth consecutive year, Phil Ciano and Andy Goldwasser have been recognized by their peers in the top 100 list for Ohio and Top 50 list for Cleveland. As a result of its growth, the Firm is pleased to welcome perennial SuperLawyer Brent Silverman, who has more than 20 years of business litigation experience. As a boutique civil litigation firm, the attorneys handle a diverse range of matters, including business torts, commercial/employment litigation, investor claims, specialty torts, shareholder/partnership disputes, sports law, and health care. Most of their referrals come from former clients and fellow attorneys who know they possess the insight and tenacity to solve the problems at hand in the most effective way possible.
Phil Ciano*
Andy Goldwasser*+
Top 100 Ohio • Top 50 Cleveland
Top 100 Ohio • Top 50 Cleveland
Brent Silverman*
Robert West
Ciano & Goldwasser, L.L.P.
101 Prospect Ave. West, Suite 1610 Cleveland, OH 44115 PH: 216-658-9900 www.cianogoldwasser.com
*CHOSEN TO 2016 SUPER LAWYERS +
MR. GOLDWASSER IS ALSO A PARTNER OF RUMIZEN WEISMAN CO., LTD.