Guy T. Saperstein

Guy T. Saperstein graduated law school (UC Berkeley) in 1969, received a poverty law fellowship and represented migrant farmworkers in Colorado; in 1972, he founded a law firm in Oakland which became the largest plaintiffs civil rights law firm in America, in the process successfully prosecuting the largest race, sex and age discrimination class actions in American history. Guy also prosecuted False Claims Act cases against Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. regarding satellite surveillance systems, and against Raytheon, Boeing and TRW regarding the sham National Missile Defense Program. From 1994-2000, Guy was included in the National Law Journal's list of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.”

Guy was President of The Sierra Club Foundation 2004-6 and currently sits on the board of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. In 2003, his memoirs, "Civil Warrior: Memoirs of a Civil Rights Attorney," were published, and in April 2005, RDR Books published "The Getaway Guide to the John Muir Trail," Guy's story of backpacking the 236-mile John Muir Trail with his youngest son. This book won the Gold Award for Best Guidebook in 2006 from the Society of American Travel Writers. In 2001, he produced a feature film, “Skeleton Woman,” and in 2002, he kayaked the Grand Canyon and backpacked the 200-mile Tahoe-to-Yosemite trail. In 2003, he received the Mark Dubois Award from Friends of the River for his work preserving American rivers. He has played baseball all his life [currently Third Base for the Lahontan Cutthroats] and has an ownership interest in the Oakland Athletics.

In 2006, Guy helped write the “Real Security” plank of the Democratic Party’s New Directions for America, and in 2007, helped found the National Security/Foreign Policy New Ideas Fund, with funding from the Democracy Alliance. He also has been Co-Chair of the Democracy Alliance’s Strategy Group and was active in its National Security/Foreign Policy Group. In 2006, Guy was described by Bill O'Reilly as "a character assassin” and “a member of the nefarious Left-Wing Mafia," along with four other DA Partners. Guy met his wife, Jeanine, in 1967 while they were picketing the federal courthouse in Los Angeles and has been married for 40 years, raising three children in the process.

Areas Of Interest: Backpacking, cycling, kayaking, scuba diving, basketball, golf, playing with his two dogs, writing, dancing, music, film, art, architecture, metaphysics.

Motto: You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about