Alexandra Shef - Los Angeles, CA

Like all Weitz & Luxenberg, Alexandra Shef is passionate about helping our clients obtain the justice they seek. So passionate is she about her work, in fact, that Super Lawyer magazine in 2015 counted Ms. Shef among its Rising Star attorneys, naming her to its Top 100 Up-and-Coming Attorneys of Southern California list and to its roster of Top 50 Up-and-Coming Women Attorneys in Southern California.

Ms. Shef - whose practice has focused exclusively on representing people suffering from malignant mesothelioma and asbestos-related cancer - joined Weitz & Luxenberg in 2015. She came to us after more than four years with The Lanier Law Firm in Los Angeles, where she co-developed its asbestos litigation group, oversaw its California asbestos cases' dockets, and mentored other attorneys.

Prior to that Ms. Shef worked at the law firm of Simon, Eddins & Greenstone in Long Beach, California. She managed mesothelioma cases from filing until trial, including handling all procedural aspects involved in initiating a case and preparing for trial, planning and conducting discovery, obtaining preferential trial dates, and making key motions to advance her clients' goals.

Earlier, she worked in the office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, in the enforcement division of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, in an immigrant-focused legal-services program operated under the auspices of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and in a Holocaust-survivor-oriented legal-services program operated by the organization Bet Tzedek. Additionally, she clerked for two Los Angeles County Superior Court judges.

Because of Ms. Shef's practice emphasis on mesothelioma and asbestos-cancer cases, her clients have been U.S. Navy veterans, construction workers, truck drivers, mechanics, appliance repairmen, industrial painters, and floor tile installers, to mention but a few. She is a skilled mesothelioma lawyer who works hard to hold companies accountable for harms done to her clients. Ms. Shef takes pride in getting cases quickly to trial or settlement and in her track-record of success at locating long-buried evidence that proves helpful to her clients' causes.

Ms. Shef entered the practice of law in 2006, soon after receiving a juris doctor degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. During her years there she twice made the Dean's Honor List and was a member of the Scott Moot Court Honors Board. Ms. Shef, who speaks and writes fluent Russian and Ukrainian, completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, where she received a bachelor of science degree in business administration. At USC, she was named to the Dean's Honor Roll every semester.