Toni J. Jaramilla

Taking on cases that bring significant change to the workplace by benefiting all workers — not just the individual who was harmed — is Jaramilla’s mission.

She often achieves that goal through arbitration, even though some in the legal world might consider the dispute-settling process to be less impactful than a trial.

“That’s the thing we all fight against — that arbitration has suppressed awards for plaintiffs [and] that’s why we all want to be in trial,” Jaramilla said. When it comes to arbitration, she said, “I think we do just fine.”

Jaramilla filed a first of its kind lawsuit under Penal Code Section 528.5, which prohibits internet impersonation, on behalf of women who alleged that fake blogs were created to depict them in a defamatory and false light after they filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against their employer. The court confirmed an arbitration award of $1.8 million for plaintiff Alyssa Ferguson in Ferguson et al. v. American Apparel Inc. et al., BC460331 (L.A. Super. Ct. Jan. 6, 2015).

Two days later, an arbitration award was also confirmed for $739,050 for plaintiff Irene Morales.

And, in a third case alleging sexual harassment, the court confirmed an arbitrator’s consent award for $2 million.

Jaramilla is now representing an Asian-American woman executive who was subjected to unfair payment and termination in the male-dominated industry of professional sports and sports management in a path-breaking gender discrimination lawsuit under the recently amended California Equal Pay Act. Li v. Independent Sports and Entertainment, BC660219 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed May 4, 2017).

Despite performing the same duties of a sports agent, Jaramilla said, the woman executive with decade of sports management experience wasn’t given the title of sports agent, and was treated less favorably than her male counterparts when it came to her salary, bonuses and overall compensation.

That shouldn’t have happened, Jaramilla said, in accordance to the state’s newly amended equal pay law. “You don’t have to show the exact job title and you don’t have to show that you worked in the exact same location,” explained Jaramilla. “When we take on cases, we look at it as an opportunity to make positive change for all the other workers there at the workplace and at the job.”

— Michele Chandler