Brancart & Brancart has been honored for outstanding work in the field of civil rights and housing discrimination litigation. Some of our awards include:

• Civil Rights Hero Award, 2009, awarded by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing
• Kerstin Arusha Award for outstanding leadership in litigation, awarded by Project Sentinel (in 2008 and 2015)
• Fair Housing Leadership Award, 2004, presented by Fair Housing of Marin
• Hon. Robert F. Peckham Award for Outstanding Public Interest Litigation, 2004, awarded by Silicon Valley Law Foundation

Our Attorneys:

Christopher Brancart started the firm in 1989 with Elizabeth Brancart. Chris graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 1985, clerked for the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (1985-1986), taught appellate advocacy and administrative law at Western State College of Law (1987-1988), and worked as a staff attorney and then the supervising attorney at the Pomona legal services office (1987-1989).

Since entering private practice, Chris has focused on litigating cases that expand fair housing rights, devising methods that improve fair housing investigations, and supporting fair housing attorneys and advocates through trainings and co-counseling.

Chris is a member of the State Bars of California, Nevada, North Dakota, and Maine, and admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Eighth Circuits, and the United States District Courts in California, Nevada, North Dakota, and the Southern District of Indiana.

---

Elizabeth Brancart graduated from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law in 1985, then clerked for the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Since 1994, Elizabeth has represented plaintiffs in federal fair housing litigation, focusing on appellate work and motion work before the district courts, including motions for summary judgment, motions for attorneys’ fees and discovery motions. She has represented plaintiffs in Fair Housing Act cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and federal district courts. Some of her notable fair housing cases are Meyer v. Holley, 537 U.S. 280 (2003), Avenue 6E v. City of Yuma, 818 F.3d 493 (9th Cir. 2016), Pacific Shores Properties, LLC v. City of Newport Beach, 730 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir. 2013), and Giebeler v. M&B Associates, 343 F.3d 1143 (9th Cir. 2003).

Elizabeth is a member of the State Bars of California and Maine and admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals for the Ninth, Eighth and Eleventh Circuits, and the United States District Courts in California and North Dakota.

Publications:

• Rutter Group deskbook, California Fair Housing and Public Accommodations (The Rutter Group 2014), Chapter 4 (co-authored with Liza Cristol-Deman)

---

Liza Cristol-Deman joined the firm in 1997. Liza is a graduate of Stanford Law School. She has successfully pursued hundreds of fair housing cases in courts throughout the U.S., including the 2014 class action trial in Bhayani v. JAM LP, which resulted in a multi-million dollar verdict on behalf of hundreds of tenants who were defrauded in connection with their security deposits.

Liza is a member of the State Bar of California, the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit, and is admitted in all federal District Courts in California and the Southern District of Indiana.

Liza’s selected trainings and presentations:

• Using Fair Housing Laws to Combat Mass Displacement, Tenants Legal Network Conference, 2019
• Sexual Harassment in Housing in the Era of #metoo (Fair Housing & Public Accommodations Symposium, California Bar, 2018)
• Home Sweet Home: Prevention and Enforcement of Housing Anti-Harassment Laws (Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance, Annual Conference, 2019)
• Fair Housing for Immigrants in a Land of Immigrants, 2011 presentation for the San Diego Fair Housing Laws and Litigation Conference
• Gender Stereotyping, LGBT Homeseekers, and the Fair Housing Act, 2014 presentation for the San Diego Fair Housing Laws and Litigation Conference

Publications:

• Rutter Group deskbook, California Fair Housing and Public Accommodations (The Rutter Group 2014), Chapter 4 (co-authored with Elizabeth Brancart)
• Chapter on Fair Housing, Nevada Real Property Practice Manual, Nevada Bar (Forthcoming)

Please read our disclaimer.