Osvaldo (“Oz”) Vazquez is an experienced ERISA litigator and a tireless advocate for working people and retirees. Oz has over a dozen years of experience advancing workers’ rights through the courts. He has practiced in settings ranging from a labor-side, public interest law firm to service as a Deputy Solicitor General in Florida’s Attorney General’s office, and has litigated cases in settings ranging from private arbitrations to the U.S. Supreme Court. At Fair Work, Oz’s practice focuses on employee benefits, including pensions and health benefits, working to ensure everyone receives the secure future they’ve been promised. Oz has litigated cases in the Florida Supreme Court, each of Florida’s federal courts, the Second, Third, Sixth, Eleventh, and DC Circuits, and the Supreme Court.

Before law school, Oz served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA, working on housing and economic development for low-income communities in Eastern North Carolina. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review and the Harvard Latino Law Review, he clerked for then-Chief Judge Sandra L. Lynch of the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Oz began his career working a private/public-interest firm, representing pension funds, retirees, unions, and workers, worked for the Florida Attorney General’s office, and practiced pension and benefits law for an international law firm and for the AARP Foundation, where he advocated for low-income seniors.

The son of working class immigrants, Oz has performed extensive pro bono for asylum seekers and for community groups serving low-income communities. In 2020, Oz was a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, running to represent his and his wife’s home district in Southeast Florida and working to strengthen workers’ rights through the political process.

Education

Harvard Law School J.D. - 2008

Florida State University B.S. - 2002

Bar Admissions

Limitations Periods in Benefit Plans – Guidance from the Courts, Benefits Magazine (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans), Dec. 2018

Can ERISA Plans Require that Fiduciary Claims be Arbitrated? Should They?, Compensation Planning Journal, Nov. 2018 (with Sara Pikofsky)

Westerlund Log Handlers, LLC and Unintended Lawyer-Client Relationships, ALAS Loss Prevention Journal, Summer 2018 (with Matthew Herrington)

Note, Government Counsel and Their Obligations, 121 Harv. L. Rev. 1409 (2008)

The Supreme Court – Leading Cases – Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 121 Harv. L. Rev. 355 (2007)

Recent Case – SEC v. Goldstein, 120 Harv. L. Rev. 1394 (2007)

Panelist, Employee Benefits Spring Update (discussing recent ERISA litigation), ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, April 3, 2019

Presenter, Multiemployer Reform Legislation (discussing proposed legislation), District of Columbia ERISA Multiemployer Lunch Group, October 26, 2016

Coordinator and Presenter, District of Columbia ERISA Litigation Lunch Group, Multiple Sessions, 2017-2019

Florida

Southern District of Florida

Middle District of Florida

Northern District of Florida

D.C. District Court

District of Columbia Circuit

Second Circuit Court of Appeals

Third Circuit Court of Appeals

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

Supreme Court of the United States

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