V. James DeSimone

DeSimone, who began his career helping the low-income clientele of the defunct Westside Legal Services in Santa Monica, views himself more as a civil rights lawyer than an employment lawyer.

"When you say 'civil rights,' it often conjures up the image of people marching in the streets in the 1960s to get the Voting Rights Act passed," he said. "But under California law, it is a civil right to have employment free of discrimination and harassment."

DeSimone's past cases include Mogilefsky vs. Silver Pictures, which established that same-gender sexual harassment as violated employment laws, and Johnson v. United Cerebral Palsy, which paved the way for plaintiffs to include "me too" evidence at trial, using previous actions to show employers' intent or motive. In Johnson with a woman who was fired after becoming pregnant, DeSimone submitted affidavits of other pregnant women who had been fired from the organization.

DeSimone argued both cases at trial and on appeal. "I always handle my own appeals, since it's very rewarding to be able to set a precedent at the appellate courts," he said.

More recently, DeSimone's cases included a $12.75 million award in April for pharmacists who were required to work seven straight days without overtime at CVS Health Corp. drugstores and $7.4 million in March for a worker at the ActioNet Inc. technology firm over claims that he had been assaulted at work and then improperly terminated.

As a civil rights lawyer, DeSimone splits his time between employment cases and claims involving police misconduct, including a $2.9 million wrongful death settlement last August on behalf of the family of Vachel Howard, who died after being put into a chokehold by a Los Angeles detention officer.

"I like the combination of doing employment cases along with police cases," DeSimone said. "Both types of cases are real underdog litigation, representing plaintiffs with less power against defendants with more power."

— Dean Calbreath