Herbert Yanowitz

Herbert W. Yanowitz

Herbert "Herb" W. Yanowitz, a trial and appellate attorney who championed underdog plaintiffs against corporate Goliaths, and in so doing set numerous important legal precedents, died on January 9th in San Francisco at the age of 79. In honor of his memory, the Superior Court of the State of California in San Mateo County, adjourned early on January 20, 2016.

The cause of death was a sudden and aggressive form of cancer, which he fought courageously.

Born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Sharon, Pennsylvania; Herb's father inspired his calling to the law. As early as the 6th grade, Herb penned essays about his plans to attend Harvard Law School, which he did after graduating Magna Cum Laude from Yale University . After graduating Cum Laude from Harvard, he received the Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship to attend the London School of Economics for one year. His deep intellect was evidenced at an early age. None other than Clarence Darrow served as an early legal role model for Herb, who devoured everything he could find about Darrow's life and cases.

Herb was renowned in the legal community for his ability to tackle difficult cases due to his brilliant intellect, prodigious memory, erudition, legal reasoning, intellectual tenacity, and steely nerve. Herb always maintained the highest standards of personal and professional conduct. Despite his many distinguished professional accomplishments Herb remained deeply humble.

His litigation, which spanned the State of California, encompassed a broad spectrum of civil and criminal cases at the trial and appellate levels. Amongst his most prominent cases was Yanowitz v. L'Oreal USA, Inc., which involved retaliation under the Fair Employment and Housing Act against Herb's wife for refusing to fire a good-performing female employee whom her general manager thought was physically unattractive. The opinion of Chief Justice Ronald M. George's opinion established numerous principles of employment law. The case has been cited in 838 published and unpublished decisions and has been the subject of discussion and commentary in numerous texts, periodicals, and programs and seminars.

His work on the People v. Schoenfield was the appeal in the highly publicized Chowchilla school bus kidnapping case in which three young men from prominent families hijacked a school bus and transported the 26 children on the bus and the bus driver to a buried moving van, from which the victims later escaped. The crime and its aftermath was the Story of the Year both for the AP and the UP.

Another landmark case, Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, involved emotional distress damages when no physical injury or impact was present. The Continuing Education of the Bar considered it the leading tort case in California in 1980. Other reported cases he tried included Multiplex Insurance Agency, Inc. v. California Life Insurance Company, People v. Brown, People v. Matlock, People v. Gambos and Mavroudis v. Superior Court.

In addition to his legal practice, Herb devoted himself to causes related to Judaism. Herb was one of the founders of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jewry and with his wife Elysa, was a long-time congregant of Temple Emanuel in San Francisco. Herb managed to decompress from the demands of his calling. He loved spending time with Elysa, and their beloved canine companions Toto and Yanni, and also golfing at the Silverado Country Club, where he was a member for twenty-nine years. In recent months, Elysa and Herb tackled the intricacies of Argentine Tango. His many accomplishments were eclipsed by his deep and abiding devotion to his family. He is survived by his loving wife of forty-eight years, Elysa Yanowitz of San Francisco, devoted sons Mason Yanowitz of Stockton California and Marshal Yanowitz of Oakland, and daughter-in-law Marinela Yanowitz.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in memory of Herbert W. Yanowitz be made to support biliary tract cancer research at UCSF. Please make checks payable to the UCSF Foundation and on the memo line or on an accompanying piece of paper, write "Biliary Tract Cancer Research/Dr. Kelley in memory of Herbert W. Yanowitz." Contributions may be sent to UCSF, P.O. Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145-0339.