Sarah Schalman-Bergen

Sarah R. Schalman-Bergen is a partner at Lichten & Liss-Riordan P.C., who has dedicated her career to creating systemic change for workers and individuals who are not being treated fairly. She has secured numerous significant settlements for the workers she represents, totaling well over $100 million.

While representing workers in all types of industries, Sarah has successfully challenged unlawful business practices involving last-mile logistics companies, cable installation companies, home health aide companies, meat and poultry plants, landscaping companies, in white collar jobs, and in the government. This litigation has resulted both in payment of back wages and in practice changes by the companies.

Sarah also represents clients in antitrust cases involving labor markets. For example, she has prosecuted challenges to “no poach” agreements that allegedly suppressed employees’ wages, and she has defended clients against antitrust claims brought to impede their rights to organize for better working conditions. Sarah also represented the City of Philadelphia against a major bank for allegedly discriminatory practices, in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Sarah works in partnership and routinely co-counsels with public interest law firms to lend expertise to their mission in litigation. She has served as volunteer of counsel to the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania for more than a decade, litigating discrimination and HIV-confidentiality cases. Sarah was honored for this work as an “Unsung Hero” by the Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania’s daily law journal.

Sarah conducts her practice according to the highest ethical standards, and has received high judicial praise, including being described as “ethical, talented, and motivated to help hard working men and women” and “some of the finest legal representation in the nation.”

Sarah routinely speaks at conferences on issues relating to workers’ rights. She currently serves on Cornell’s ILR-Hotel School CIHLER Advisory Board. Sarah was named a 2020 Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, after being named as a Rising Star in every year over the prior decade. In 2021, she was named in Best Lawyers in America. In 2015, she was honored as a “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by The Legal Intelligencer.

Prior to joining the Firm, Sarah was a partner at a plaintiff-side class action law firm, where she served as co-chair of the firm’s employment rights practice group. She has also practiced in the litigation department at a large Philadelphia firm, where she represented clients in a variety of industries in complex commercial litigation. Sarah received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School and her B.A. summa cum laude from Tufts University.