Attorney Profiles

Yigal Bander
Staff Attorney

Yigal Bander was born in New York City and grew up in Michigan.  He moved back to New York with his family when he was 12.  Yigal's lifelong interest in community affairs and commitment to social justice expressed itself as early as age 14 when he was  president of his local Teens for Johnson-Humphrey organization during the 1964  presidential election. 

After graduating from high school at 17, Yigal went to Israel to study Hebrew and live on a kibbutz. He attended Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was active in student government.  He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in humanities.  After serving in the Israel Defense Forces, he worked for the Israel Ministry of Finance for three years as an organization and methods analyst before returning to the U.S. with his wife and two young daughters.  Yigal and his growing family - two more daughters were born - lived in Philadelphia, Alabama, and Florida before coming to Baton Rouge in 1985.  Yigal served for five years as Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Baton Rouge and then embarked on a career in clinical social work, having received his MSW from Louisiana State University in 1989.   He remains a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

Yigal always dreamed of being a lawyer.  In 1994, with his wife Ellen launched on her own career as a public school teacher, and his children able to look after themselves, Yigal started law school at Louisiana State University, where he was awarded the Phelps Dunbar Scholarship.  He made Law Review, and graduated in 1997 in the top quarter of his class.  He has been with Kleinpeter & Schwartzberg, LLC ever since. 

He is admitted to practice in Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Western, and Middle Districts of Louisiana.  He is a member of the Louisiana State and Baton Rouge Bar Associations, the American Association for Justice, and the Louisiana Association for Justice.

Yigal writes and speaks on a number of different legal subjects.  His publications include:  A Practical Guide to Motions Practice, National Business Institute, 2007 (co-author); Good News, Great News, and No News at All: U.S. Supreme Court Decides Three Health Insurance Reimbursement Cases, Louisiana Advocates, August 2006;  Winning Strategies for Jury Selection, National Business Institute, 2006 (co-author);  Workers' Compensation Hearings in Louisiana, National Business Institute, 2004 (co-author); Great-West is Great News, Louisiana Advocates, Spring 2002;  and United States v. Posado: The Fifth Circuit Applies Daubert to Polygraph Evidence, 57 Louisiana Law Review 1991 (Winter 1997).  Yigal also maintains a  running memorandum posted on the internet on Liens, Subrogation, Reimbursement, and Rule 1.15", which is often referenced by other Louisiana attorneys.

Yigal practices in the areas of personal injury (car crashes, workplace accidents, premises liability, etc.), criminal defense, workers' compensation, civil rights, women's rights, and teachers' rights.  He has represented members of both East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers and A*PEL, as well as several small businesses.  Yigal is a trial lawyer who fights for his clients. He enjoys seeing cases through from start to finish, whether that be a settlement, a trial, or an appeal.  Yigal gives his personal attention to every case he takes.  He knows what it was like not being a lawyer for the first 47 years of his life, and tries to remain courteous and compassionate even under the stress of a busy and adversarial legal practice.

Yigal enjoys securing good results for his clients.  He also enjoys making law in the process.  For instance, in Dorsey v. Consolidated Freightways, Inc., 2000-0772 (La. 5/26/02), 762 So. 2d 628, Yigal not only won a victory for his client, but for all plaintiffs faced with a claim that their case has abandoned; in Ernest v. Petroleum Service Corp., 2002-2482 (La.App. 1 Cir. 11/19/03), 868 So. 2d 96, writ denied, 2003-3439 (La. 2/20/04), 866 So. 2d 830, Yigal clarified the law governing employer immunity in a manner favoring injured employees;  and in Stoshak v. East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, 2006-0852 (La.App. 1 Cir. 2/21/07), 959 So. 2d 996, writ denied, 2007-0633 (La. 5/11/07), 955 So. 2d 1281, Yigal made a difference not only for his own client, an East Baton Rouge Parish public school teacher, but for all public school teachers throughout the state.

He continues to act on his decades long interest in public affairs and social justice.  In the early 90s, he served as Chair of the  Capital Area United Way Admissions Committee and of the Social Action Committee of the Louisiana chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.  He was a candidate for State Representative in 1999, and served on the EBR Democratic Parish Executive Committee from 2000 to 2004. In November of 2004, he spent a week in New Mexico as a volunteer Voter Protection attorney.  And in 2006-2007, he volunteered his legal services to oppose the creation of what he believed to be a newly segregated school district.   

When not striving for his clients, Yigal enjoys classical music and opera, reading, and travel;  he and his wife Ellen subscribe to and support the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra and enjoy traveling to opera performances in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe.  They also enjoy visiting art museums, and have toured nearly every major museum in North America.  Their favorite national parks are Grand Canyon and North Cascades.