City of Oakland
Oakland City Attorney Contact

Affirmative Litigation

City Attorney Ryan Richardson and  our entire team are committed to improving quality of life, equity, and justice for every Oakland resident by protecting and advancing Oaklanders’ rights. The Oakland City Attorney’s team crafts policies and laws and goes to court to  stop  practices that violate local, state, and/or federal laws that protect tenants’ and workers’ rights, prohibit discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age and  to secure environmental injustice, protect  public health and welfare.

Examples of Notable Cases

City Attorney Richardson and his team have successfully:

  • Protected public health by securing a $7.5 million settlement for Oakland as part of a $537.5 million class action settlement with Monsanto and parent company Bayer for contaminating Oakland’s storm drains and waterways with toxic chemicals and a $305 million class action settlement with lead paint manufacturers after 20 years of litigation, including trial to clean up lead paint in Oaklanders’ homes.
  • Protected Oakland tenants from systemic violations by a prominent local real estate empire, and protected tenants from illegal evictions during the COVID-19 emergency.
  • Stood up for vulnerable disabled and elderly Oakland residents by suing predatory operators of an independent living facility.

City Attorney Richardson is leading legal fights, including:

  • The City of Oakland is pursuing ongoing litigation against Wells Fargo for its racially discriminatory lending practices. After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed the City of Oakland’s right to sue the lender, the substance of the case continues to move forward in federal court.
  • The public nuisance lawsuits Oakland and San Francisco city attorneys filed against the five largest investor-owned producers of fossil fuels in the world to hold “Big Oil” responsible for the costs of sea walls and other infrastructure necessary to protect Oakland and San Francisco from ongoing and future consequences of climate change and sea level rise caused by the companies’ production of massive amounts of fossil fuels.
  • The City Attorney’s lawsuit against the owner of notorious 90-unit residential building in Downtown Oakland results in landmark ruling to rehabilitate the building as long-term affordable housing

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City Attorney Ryan Richardson releases a periodic newsletter in which he provides updates about the work of the Office of the City Attorney as well as reflections on current local, statewide, and national legal topics of importance to Oakland residents. 

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Oakland City Attorney

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Oakland City Attorney
City Hall – 6th Floor
1 Frank Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, California
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