by AUD Staff
Dan Seigel, labor attorney, activist, and friend of the Association for Union Democracy, passed away in July, just short of his eightieth birthday. In the course of his life, Seigel was involved in a remarkable number of fields, including labor law (most relevant to his advisory board status at AUD), but also civil rights, electoral politics, and even broadcasting.
Seigel was born in New York, attending grade and primary school on Long Island and received his bachelor’s degree at Hamilton College. During his time as an undergraduate he joined CORE’s (Congress On Racial Equality) voter registration drive in the South. He then attended University of California, Berkeley School of Law from 1967 until 1970, when he received his JD and passed the California State Bar. During his time at UC Berkeley, Seigel famously became involved with the Students for a Democratic Society, getting elected to student government on that basis. Because of his activism with SDS, he was initially denied his law license by the California State Bar Association. After challenging the decision, he eventually would argue his case in front of the California Supreme Court; Siegel v. Committee of Bar Examiners(1973). The court sided with Seigel and ordered he be certified to practice law.
Shortly after finally receiving his law license, Seigel began to practice with the firm Siegel, Yee, Brunner & Mehta, waging legal battles “…on behalf of thousands of plaintiffs seeking protection for their civil, labor and First Amendment rights”, in the words of his wife, Anne Weills and sons Christopher Scheer and Michael Siegel [1]. Plaintiffs included the National Union of Healthcare Workers, who he represented in their legal disputes with the then leadership of SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Sal Roselli, former president of the NUHW, said of Siegel “Dan turned over his whole firm to this David and Goliath fight…We didn’t pay a dime. It was all pro bono.”[2]. As a lawyer, Siegel also represented “…workers who built pipelines in Alaska, canned food in Watsonville, and repaired naval ships in San Diego…Much of his work was pro bono, whether for unhoused people, students, prisoners or low-income workers”, again quoting his family [3]. Ken Paff, founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, said of Siegel “I didn’t often ask him for help, but when I did, he never turned me down…Dan was there for TDU”.
In addition to his legal work, Siegel also consistently took an interest in electoral politics in California, both on the State and local level. In 1982, he ran for attorney general of California on the Peace and Freedom Party Ticket, losing to Democrat John Van de Kamp. In addition to getting elected to two terms on the Oakland School Board, Siegel ran for Mayor of Oakland, California in 2014 on a platform broadly sympathetic to the then still vibrant “Occupy Wall Street” movement. He lost to Democrat Libby Schaaf, who would go on to be Mayor of Oakland for two terms. Siegel continued his activism right up until the end, doing legal work and attending political rallies as late as June of 2025.
Dan Siegel is survived by his wife of nearly fifty years Anne Weills, son Michael Siegel, stepson Christopher Scheer, and grandchildren Ben, Malika, and Hamza.
