Matthew S. McNicholas

Over the past two years alone, McNicholas successfully sued the Los Angeles Police Department in four separate cases on behalf of five police academy recruits and three officers who were injured on duty and harassed or retaliated against after making claims. The result: more than $20 million in awards for those clients. McNicholas is panel counsel to the Los Angeles Police Protective League and the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City. He currently has more than 20 additional cases pending against the LAPD on a variety of issues.

In April, McNicholas obtained a $2.1 million verdict against the City of Los Angeles and the LAPD for former police detective Maria Elena Montoya on claims that police brass suspended her, stripped her of her detective's assignment and imposed other forms of retaliation after she took a medically ordered disability leave. Montoya v. City of Los Angeles, BC501572 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 15, 2013)

"Typical," McNicholas said. "When you look under the hood at the police department, sometimes you're amazed they're still able to fight crime. The LAPD on the one hand is the best trained, best equipped urban force in the world. Yet they feel they can do what they want to whomever they want. The SWAT team is the best in the world, yet it also contains a few old, fat, bloated, racist, bigoted pigs."

Montoya, he said, was his fifth retaliation case in two years. "The LAPD brass calls people injured on duty 'sick, lame and lazy,' and it works hard and often illegally to keep the numbers low because otherwise they have to fight crime with fewer bodies," he said. "Atkins was another."

In Atkins v. City of Los Angeles, McNicholas won a $12.3 million verdict on behalf of five police recruits who were injured during Police Academy training and then fired. McNicholas argued failure to accommodate and failure to engage in the interactive process. It was the largest employment verdict ever against the LAPD.

McNicholas said he is about to file a suit on behalf of seven fire inspectors who faced alleged retaliation after they complained that a new fire marshal cut corners in inspections of hospitals, churches and schools. "It got so bad the union voted no confidence in this guy," McNicholas said. "The retaliation pins a scarlet letter on you, sends you a message. It's the way law enforcement pimps out their own people."

— John Roemer