Dan L. Stormer

Stormer represents a lawyer suing his former firm and a television actress suing her former production company. "We are establishing an approach to discrimination that is truly unique," Stormer said.

For lawyer client Felix Lebron, Stormer filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court in January against his former employer, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. The complaint alleges that after Lebron became eligible for partnership in 2012, his career was derailed by overt racial discrimination. Current Los Angeles litigation partners claimed in private conversations and in meetings that Lebron was not a "cultural fit" with Akin Gump and that his "machismo" attitude created a personality clash.

According to Stormer's complaint, the partners were "evoking stereotypes of Latino men as hostile, misogynist, unintelligent and out of control." One partner allegedly stated that "Lebron's demeanor and appearance made him look like a 'Mexican gangbanger.'" As one of a handful of minority attorneys in the Los Angeles office, the complaint said Lebron was on the recruiting committee and spent significant time on that task "because of his concerns about the lack of diversity in the firm." But he was removed from the recruiting post and replaced with a white litigation attorney while he was out of the office for two weeks on paternity leave for the birth of his second daughter, the complaint said. The stress of dealing with firm hostility led to severe anxiety and nausea, and Lebron was fired without explanation when he sought medical leave, the complaint said. Lebron v. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, BC607665 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 19, 2016)

"The case is in discovery, and we have trial slated for the fall of 2017," Stormer said.

For client actress Victoria Rowell, who self-identifies as black and who plays a black character on the daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless" for 14 years as Drucilla Barber Winters, Stormer sued Sony Pictures Television Inc., CBS Corp. and others for rejecting Rowell's efforts to return to the show "in retaliation for her public and private advocacy to increase the presence of African Americans both in front of and behind the camera in soap operas," according to the complaint. Rowell v. Sony Pictures Television Inc., 2:15-cv-02442 (C.D. Cal., filed Feb. 11, 2015)

"We just prevailed on a defense motion to dismiss, and trial is set for later this year," Stormer said of the Rowell case. In both cases, he added, "These are clients of color who are typically not willing to put themselves out there in the entertainment industry and the legal profession."

— John Roemer