Salvador ("Sal") A. Liccardo

Sal died peacefully, surrounded by family, on September 6, 2026. The son of a grocer, Sal grew up on San Jose’s North Fifth Street with his late brother Len, inheriting his Sicilian-American parents’ deep commitment to faith, to family, and to supporting people in need.

Sal loved telling stories, and Sal’s story began under Jesuit tutelage at Bellarmine College Prep and Santa Clara University, where he developed lifelong friendships. At a school dance, Sal met Laura Aceves—and later collected $10 from a buddy who bet that he could never get a second date with her. Sal and Laura eventually wed in 1959, sharing 66 years of marriage and an adventurous life with their five children.

After college graduation in 1956, Sal served in the U.S. Army for two years, including a tour in the Philippines, where he handled top-secret military communications in the Signal Corps. That adventure became the source of some of Sal’s best stories, including monitoring the Taiwan Strait Crisis, tracking a Soviet space flight, operating in the Philippine jungle, piloting a single-engine plane, and many others.

Sal returned home and enrolled at Santa Clara University School of Law. Struggling to find a job, he bagged groceries to support his young family until Dick Caputo hired him. Sal started by taking cases from nearly anyone who needed legal help, from arrested San Jose State student activists, to indigent criminal defendants, to injured farmworkers (at the personal urging of Cesar Chavez). All added to Sal’s inventory of great stories. Over the years, the small firm would add partners Ron Rossi, Bob Sturges, Don McNeil, and dozens of others. Caputo, Liccardo, Rossi, Sturges & McNeil would become a launching pad for the young careers of many of the Bay Area's top lawyers.

Sal honed his storytelling craft in closing arguments to juries in hundreds of product liability cases, seeking justice for victims harmed by corporate America’s indifference. He earned national distinction in the 1970s for securing a million-dollar verdict against Johnson & Johnson for its failure to warn women of the risks of stroke from early formulations of its birth control pill. That case—and subsequent litigation involving silicone implants—would form the basis of two books he wrote and published in his later years, Her Right to Know and A Silicone Tragedy.

Sal was inducted into Inner Circle of Advocates, an organization of the nation’s top 100 plaintiff trial attorneys, a group with which he often shared ideas, insights, and friendship. Along with a few Inner Circle colleagues and Ralph Nader, Sal co-founded Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (now known as Public Justice), a nonprofit national law firm championing consumer rights. He was also a long-time member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. Through these organizations, Sal enjoyed teaching young attorneys, particularly in China, where he encouraged reform by introducing American conceptions of the rule of law and human rights to Chinese lawyers and officials. His storytelling–and his legal battles against auto manufacturers, drug companies, and other Goliaths of the era–provided the material for much of his teaching. Sal would try his final case—successfully—in his 80’s.

Sal gave generously, and to many. He helped his gardener buy a first family home, financed the college education of three children of a deceased friend, and paid the high school and college tuition of several first-generation Sacred Heart Nativity graduates from his mother’s immigrant neighborhood. He dedicated much of his energy and time to education, serving on boards at Santa Clara University and Bellarmine. Sal felt particular pride in his efforts to establish an endowment ensuring that no child would be denied admission to Bellarmine for his family’s inability to afford tuition.

With Laura, Sal’s proudest legacy was their family: their five children and spouses Laura, Kathleen, Paul & Toni, Rosalie & Joe, and Sam & Jessica; their grandchildren and spouses Jason & Jessica, Gabriella, and Brian; and exuberant great-grandchildren Thatcher and Sutton. Sal’s many happy times traveling and enjoying the outdoors with family sailing, skiing, golfing, hiking, swimming, and running bred many more stories, involving sharks, bears, and crazed children. He loved to play the piano to a cheering family audience, and ensured that every dinner table conversation included lively discussion of philosophy, economics, or politics.

All are welcome to a Mass celebrating Sal’s life and stories at the Santa Clara University Mission Church on Sunday, September 27, 2026, at 1 p.m., with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate contributions to the financial aid programs that assist students at Santa Clara University, Cristo Rey San Jose High School, or Bellarmine College Prep.