William Rutzick

• $7.4 million class action verdict against IBP, Inc. on behalf of over 800 workers who were required to don, doff, and clean safety equipment without being paid.
   
• Affirming a $1.3 million jury award in a landmark state Supreme Court decision, overturning the Washington State Legislature's 1986 Tort Reform Act that had imposed a cap on plaintiffs' damage awards.
   
• $780,000 verdict in the case of a man diagnosed with terminal cancer as a result of his exposure to asbestos in the Seattle shipyards in the 1960s.
   
• Successful class actions against Taco Bell resulting in thousands of employees receiving millions of dollars in back wages in the state of Washington (1997) and the state of Oregon (2003).
   
• A statewide class action injunction requiring the Social Security Administration to follow Ninth Circuit precedent in adjudicating disability claims, affecting 7,000 disabled workers previously denied or terminated from Social Security.
   
• An injunction against the Department of Social and Health Services prohibiting it from terminating an assistance program for Indo-Chinese refugees. This challenge under the Administrative Procedures Act eventually led to the program's reinstatement.
   
• A state Supreme Court case that led to the invalidation of the waiver of liability that the Seattle School District required students to sign to participate in high school athletics.

Education

• University of California at Berkeley, B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, 1965
• Yale University Law School, J.D., 1968

Admissions

• Washington State
• Rhode Island
• U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Washington
• U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• U.S. Supreme Court

Professional and Civic Involvement

• Washington Pattern Jury Instruction Committee
• Washington State Bar Association