Lynne C. Hermle

Since joining Orrick in 1987, Hermle has prevailed in all 14 employment cases she has defended in court, including 11 as lead counsel. And that doesn't count all of the cases that she blocked from going to court through summary judgments, class decertifications or other actions.

Hermle is best known for last year's defense of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers venture capital firm against gender discrimination claims by Ellen Pao, a former partner at the firm who charged she had been passed over for promotions and fired because she was a woman.

Because the case provided salacious details about Silicon Valley's traditionally male-dominated culture — including Pao's claims that she had been retaliated against after breaking off an affair with another Kleiner Perkins partner — it immediately fell under an intense media spotlight. And that did not make the case any easier for Hermle.

"Employment cases are always challenging for the defense, because the juries are largely made up of employees, and many have had their own negative experiences with employers," Hermle said. "But in high-profile cases, you not only have to convince the jury, but also the reporters covering the case, who are often more sympathetic to the employees. And sometimes, that's even true of the judge."

During 24 days of trial, Hermle repeatedly poked holes in Pao's testimony, using internal job reviews to suggest that the reason Pao's career stalled had to do with her skills as a venture capitalist rather than her gender. The case ended in March 2015 with a totally victory for Kleiner Perkins and prompted a number of other firms — including Twitter Inc. and Microsoft Corp. — to ask Hermle to represent them in other gender discrimination cases.

Although gender discrimination cases may end up being a niche for Hermle, her interests include a wide variety of business issues that don't necessarily have to do with employment law. Her current clients include Fitbit Inc., a maker of wearable fitness devices, which is being sued by a rival named Jawbone Inc., which alleges Fitbit has been hiring its workers away to obtain the company's trade secrets.

But Hermle said she likes employment cases in particular because they are "a great match" for her problem-solving skills and they revolve around "such interesting fact patterns about how people interact with each other."

Hermle's more recent cases include a summary judgment of a wrongful termination claim against Microsoft by one of its former employees and defending Broadcom Corp. against a former corporate counsel, who claims she was fired for reporting securities law violations. That case is slated to go to trial in October.

— Dean Calbreath