Ed Zappia

Ed Zappia is one of California's preeminent labor & employment lawyers defending public and private employers' management rights in all aspects of labor and employment law since 1994. He has defended 100s of civil employment lawsuits alleging harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, breach of contract, and related claims. He has defended over 40 FLSA and Labor Code class and collective actions in California, Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Florida; has first-chaired over 25 employment trials in state and federal courts; has handled over 50 appeals in the California Court of Appeal, with 6 published opinions; has defended 100s of administrative hearings and arbitrations involving employee discipline and grievances, as well as 75 labor union-employer disputes and unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board and Public Employment Relations Board; has conducted over 50 personnel investigations, many involving high level executives, elected officials, and police personnel; and Ed provides employers with daily advice and counsel in a wide array of labor and employer law matters including the FEHA, CFRA, FMLA, ADA, FLSA, Labor Code, and public entity issues involving the Public Records Act and Brown Act, and various public employee and police and fire disciplinary matters and due process rights.

Ed graduated from UCLA with a degree in Political Science/Economics. He then graduated from Musician’s Institute in Hollywood with a degree in Rock, Blues, and Jazz Guitar. After failing to become a rock star, he attended Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles and started practicing law in 1994.

Ed started as an associate attorney for management defense lawyer Linda Miller-Savitt. Then for 6 years, he was an associate at public entity boutique LIEBERT CASSIDY. In 2001 Ed elevated to the national employment and labor employment law firm JACKSON LEWIS where he became an equity partner and Director of Public Sector Litigation in the Los Angeles. He founded THE ZAPPIA LAW FIRM in 2008. His wife, Anna Zappia, transferred from her firm to ZLF in 2010, and they've run the practice together for over 15 years.

Now that their family is grown, the Zappias could retire, but have instead continued accepting select cases because after 30 years each, because they got pretty good at it.

Ed spends his free time playing and collecting guitars, recording in his studio, working out, riding motorcycles, traveling, and hanging out with his family and pets.

Files coming soon.

Anna Zappia

Anna Zappia holds degrees from Stanford, Oxford, and Northwestern University School of Law, magna cum laude.

After law school, she served as federal appellate clerk to The Honorable David A. Nelson on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal, where she heard hundreds of oral arguments and drafted judicial opinions on numerous NLRB appeals and precedent-setting cases involving Congressional Term Limits, reverse race discrimination, and an en banc death penalty case.

Anna continued to hone her appellate advocacy skills under Ken Starr at Kirkland & Ellis. When Mr. Starr was recalled to the White House, Anna transferred to a premier entertainment boutique in Century City, where she specialized in copyrights, trademarks, and high-stakes contractual, intellectual property, and employment disputes and appeals in LA's entertainment industry. Anna has litigated several cases all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, including a County Board Member's right to Free Speech, and the seminal Cheers case (Wendt & Ratzenberger v. Paramount Pictures), successfully defending individual actors' rights over their on-screen personas.

Anna then met her husband Ed Zappia, and joined him when he opened this law firm in 2008. She has been at ZLF ever since, where she has served as Managing Partner for a decade, and continues to chair appellate work, winning several prominent appellate reversals in significant public sector cases, and an Extraordinary Writ on the eve of trial.

Anna Zappia has been a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar for 25 years, and is licensed to practice before the Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, and DC Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as all state and federal courts in California.

Anna has taught in local law schools, and is also a court-appointed Special Advocate for children in Orange County's foster care system.

Files coming soon.