Anthony G. Ratto
Juan J. Spencer
Marcela Irby
Frederick L. Boyd, Jr.
Francisco Eliecer Moreno Lopez
Joseph Steve Franco
ANTHONY G. RATTO
Managing Attorney and President
U.C. Berkeley
University of San Francisco, School of Law
Member of the State Bar of California
Mr. Ratto has been the Managing Attorney and President of Ratto Law Firm, P.C. and its predecessor firm, Law Offices of Duda, Rahim & Ratto, P.C. since 1984. He graduated “With Honors”from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. During college, he studied abroad in Italy, enrolling for one year at the University of Padova, during which time he learned Italian. He then attended the University of San Francisco Law School, graduating in 1982. Mr. Ratto is a lifetime resident of the Bay Area, having been born in San Francisco and also raised and schooled in the Bay Area.
Throughout his career he has litigated civil and workers’ compensation cases in both jury and bench trials. He has handled cases throughout California: in California Superior Courts, California Court of Appeals, United States District Court, Ninth District Court of Appeals, and Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. He has primarily represented people who have suffered injuries. Many are working people who have sustained on-the-job injuries. Others have been injured in automobile collisions, by defective products, slip and falls, or by other negligent acts. He has also served as Counsel for the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 192 (the union representing the workers of the Alameda County Transit District).
Mr. Ratto has proven to be an exceptional attorney and businessman by successfully maintaining and growing his law practice with its primary office in Oakland during changing times in four different decades. He has been a member of many professional organizations, including Consumer Attorneys of California, California Applicants Attorneys’ Association, Alameda County Bar Association, San Francisco Bar Association, Italian American Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.
Mr. Ratto is admired by many for maintaining a solid balance between his professional life and his personal life. He has two college aged sons, who over the years he has been proud to coach in several sports, including baseball, soccer, and basketball. His wife of 24 years is a public school teacher.
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JUAN J. SPENCER
Hearing Representative
Mr. Spencer is a non-attorney lay representative, who advocates on behalf of injured workers before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. He is supervised by Anthony G. Ratto, Managing Attorney and has been with the firm since February of 2003.
Mr. Spencer began his legal career in 1996. Since that time, he has worked with Workers’ Compensation Attorneys, Personal Injury Attorneys and a Labor Arbitrator in several different capacities. Since making his first appearance in January of 2004, Mr. Spencer has made hundreds of appearances before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Boards in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Stockton, Santa Rosa, and Napa.
Mr. Spencer is an ex-injured worker who can identify with injured workers and the frustrations they face while navigating through the workers’ compensation system. He has also been married for over 5 years and is the Father of three children.
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MARCELA IRBY
Associate Attorney
Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina ‘Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires’
Member of the State Bar of California
Member of the Bar Association of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mrs. Irby was licensed as an attorney in Argentina in 1994, and admitted to the California State Bar in 1999. After a decade practicing immigration and nationality law, Mrs. Irby joined the legal team at Ratto Law Firm, P.C. as an Associate Attorney focusing on Workers’ Compensation law.
Mrs. Irby enjoys the unique challenges and reward involved in representing injured workers, and appears regularly before the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board.
FREDERICK L. BOYD, JR.
Associate Attorney
Admitted to the State Bar in 1978, Fred Boyd has been practicing
Workers’ Compensation Law since 1979.
The California Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California has certified Mr. Boyd as a specialist in the practice of Workers’ Compensation Law continuously since 1984. He is one of only 42 lawyers in the state, in any field of practice, who has been continuously certified as a specialist for more than 25 years.
His fellow lawyers have several times recognized his expertise by voting and selecting him as one of the leading lawyers in the Silicon Valley. In 2005, his peers named him a Northern California Super Lawyer.
Mr. Boyd has been a frequent speaker on the seminar circuit. In 2010, he was a presenting panelist on the subject of legal ethics at the summer convention of the California Applicant’s Attorneys Association, in Monterey. Later in the year for the same organization, he was a presenting panelist on the subject of trial preparation and tactics. Mr. Boyd has also presented before the California Society of Industrial Medicine, the California Workers’ Compensation Defense Attorneys Association, The National Business Institute, the workers’ compensation section of the Santa Clara Bar Association, Life Chiropractic, and various industrial claims associations.
Mr. Boyd, as a volunteer, frequently sits as a Judge Pro Tempore at
the Oakland Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.
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FRANCISCO ELIECER MORENO LOPEZ
Associate Attorney
U.C. Davis
U.C. Davis King Hall School of Law
Member of the State Bar of California
Mr. Moreno began his career in a workers’ compensation defense firm representing insurance companies. He then decided to represent injured workers before joining our team. Mr. Moreno has appeared many times before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Boards in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Stockton and Santa Rosa.
JOSEPH STEVE FRANCO
Associate Attorney
University of California Hastings College of the Law, 2008
University of California, Berkeley
Mr. Franco represents applicants in all aspects of workers’
compensation cases. Mr. Franco has appeared before the Workers’
Compensation Appeals Boards in Oakland, San Francisco, and Stockton.
He graduated cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley in
2004 receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He received
his law degree from U.C. Hastings College of the Law in 2008. During
law school, Mr. Franco externed for Justice Carlos Moreno of the
Supreme Court of California. Mr. Franco also interned for a leading
Fortune 500 company. Before he attended law school, Mr. Franco
worked as a research analyst for a leading governance analysis and proxy
voting firm.
Currently, Mr. Franco is a member of the National Hispanic Bar
Association. Before joining the Ratto Law Firm, Mr. Franco practiced
business litigation and served as general counsel and chief executive
officer for a telecommunications internet startup.
