Practice
Areas: Government Law and Policy; Labor & Employment;
Litigation
Experience
Mr. Holtzman practices in the areas of government law and policy;
employment law and labor relations; and appeals. His expertise
encompasses public policy advice and drafting; ballot and other
legislative initiatives; affirmative litigation; government
law advice and litigation; statutory and constitutional civil
litigation; and labor negotiations, fact-finding, mediation,
arbitration, litigation, and advice. He has litigated extensively
in areas including Constitutional issues, the Fair Labor Standards
Act, Title VII and California Government Code section 12940,
sexual harassment, whistleblower complaints, charter and statutory
wage and benefit guarantees, retirement issues, health benefits,
contracting-out questions, privacy matters, and drug testing.
He also specializes in consent decrees, class actions, writs
and appeals.
Related
Experience
Mr. Holtzman was employed with the City and County of San Francisco
in various roles from 1987-2002. He served as Director of Labor
and Policy in the office of San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown,
Jr from 2000-2002. In that capacity, he was the chief labor
negotiator for the Mayor. He was also an advisor on and drafter
of major policy initiatives including the city's living wage
law and the reform of the civil service and criminal justice
systems.
Mr. Holtzman
was Chief Deputy Attorney in the City Attorney's Office from
1995-2000, supervising the office's 200 attorneys. He was also
a principal architect of the city attorney's nationally recognized
affirmative litigation program, which brought together groups
of local government and non-profit plaintiffs to seek court-ordered
reform of unfair business practices by energy producers, tobacco
companies, national banks, gun manufacturers, auto insurers,
and escrow companies. From 1987-1995, Mr. Holtzman headed the
City and County of San Francisco's City Attorney Employment
and Labor Team, responsible for conducting labor negotiations
and interest arbitration with the City's 50 unions and acting
as lead counsel in lawsuits, writs, class actions, and appeals
involving all facets of labor and employment.
Mr. Holtzman
managed the city's transition to collective bargaining and interest
arbitration and drafted attendant civil service reform measures.
On behalf of three mayoral administrations and numerous boards
of supervisors, he authored and negotiated more than a dozen
labor-related charter amendments adopted by the voters since
1988. He also served as counsel defending San Francisco's affirmative
action programs in a series of lawsuits arising under Proposition
209, including San Francisco's challenges to the proposition
in both state and federal courts.
He has been
extensively involved in efforts to improve government efficiency.
He negotiated and drafted a 1999 ballot measure reforming the
governance of the city's municipal transit system and making
it a quasi-independent agency; drafted a 2002 ballot measure
enhancing the authority of the San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission; and a 2003 ballot measure requiring the City Controller
to conduct "benchmarking" studies of City services,
as well as performance audits to improve government effectiveness.
Before joining
the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, Mr. Holtzman was an
associate at Morrison & Foerster, litigating employment
cases and class actions.
Mr. Holtzman
clerked from 1981-1983 for California Supreme Court Associate
Justice Otto M. Kaus.
Education
Haverford
College (B.A. 1978); Stanford School of Law (J.D. 1981)
Memberships
California
State Bar ; Bar Association of San Francisco
Selected
Presentations and Publications
Mr. Holtzman
is a frequent speaker and writer on a variety of labor and public
policy topics. In the last two years, he was a primary author
of two publications by the San Francisco Planning and Urban
Research Association (SPUR)
Jonathan
Holtzman and Jeffrey Sloan, Lets Make A Deal, Bender's California
Labor & Employment Bulletin, June 1, 2005
Community
Activities
Mr. Holtzman
has served on the boards of many legal and community organizations,
including as president of the Barrister's Club of the San Francisco
Bar Association. He is the recipient of BASF's Award of Merit.
He is presently on the Board of the San Francisco Planning and
Urban Research Association (SPUR).
Representative
Published Decisions
