A Tribute To Our Founder
Mr. Mancini was born in 1962 in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and raised in Mexico City, Mexico from 1968-1977. As an immigrant’s son, Mr. Mancini’s ethnic sense of being was a powerful force that drove him to excel and ultimately drove him to a career representing those individuals with the most need – plaintiffs.
Mr. Mancini attended UCLA where he obtained a B.A. in Economics in 1984. He then went on to attend Case Western Reserve University of Law where he received his Juris Doctor in 1989. Mr. Mancini was a member of the Mock Trial Team and was recognized as the youngest finalist in the 1986 Annual Trial Competition.
After passing the bar in 1990, Mr. Mancini began his legal career by working for a defense firm specializing in general liability, and later, a combined plaintiff/defense firm specializing in general liability with an emphasis on construction defect litigation. This is where Mr. Mancini began his involvement in employment cases.
In 1997, at age 36, Mr. Mancini was nominated for Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Consumer Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (CAALA), which represents the Plaintiff’s Bar in Southern California. Mr. Mancini remains one of the youngest nominees for this most prestigious award. The winner is typically in their late 40s or 50s, with tens if not hundreds of millions in verdicts to their credit.
In March 1997, Mr. Mancini began his own practice. Mr. Mancini obtained a sexual harassment award against Larry Flynt and Hustler in the amount in excess of $2 Million Dollars. In 2007, Mr. Mancini was a CAALA Board Member-at-Large and a Nominee for the 2007 CAOC Street Fighter of the Year Award. Licata & Yeremenko, A Professional Law Corporation‘ Appellate Record is stellar: multiple Appellate reversals, with four alone in a three week span in July 2006 and three in a day in March 2015.
Mr. Mancini lectured on numerous employment law topics from the Plaintiff’s perspective, and Mr. Mancini was a featured speaker at several CAALA conventions. Mr. Mancini has also testified as an expert witness in arbitration and trial on employment, wrongful termination, legal malpractice and defamation.
Mr. Mancini’s contribution to the legal profession included his passion, tenacity and conviction in all that he did: represent aggrieved and wronged consumers. Mr. Mancini believed that the function of the plaintiff/consumer lawyer was a conservative one: to maintain individual liberties, the same as the minuteman in the Revolutionary War of Independence – the first line of offense and the last line of defense against the oppression and tyranny of government and corporations, and to maintain and preserve the status quo as set up by the brave minutemen.
Mr. Mancini took a very hands-on approach when it came to mentoring the attorneys that worked for the firm. Mr. Mancini made a conscious effort to impart his vast legal knowledge, experience and ethos to those lucky enough to work with him. Ms. Licata and Mr. Yeremenko have many fond memories of late-night teachings, about the legal world and life in general from Mr. Mancini over the years.
Sadly, Mr. Mancini passed away much too soon in 2020 at the age of 58. Always a warrior, Mr. Mancini was still focused on his cases and the firm in his final days. Since his passing, Ms. Licata and Mr. Yeremenko carry on Mr. Mancini’s legacy by continuing to fight for and help those in need.