McNicholas & McNicholas LLP

The father, sons and daughter team at plaintiff's law firm McNicholas & McNicholas LLP have dedicated their family business to advocating for clients who have faced discrimination, workplace retaliation, and catastrophic injuries.

Founding partner and patriarch John P. McNicholas brings more than five decades of experience, with a client list that includes the Vatican, which he represented during child molestation trials. When his children and current colleagues Matthew S. McNicholas, Patrick McNicholas and Courtney C. McNicholas were young, the senior McNicholas said he often brought work home with him, and had kids looking over his shoulder. Their interest stuck, and they eventually helped to build the practice into the plaintiffs' powerhouse it is today.

"On the plaintiffs' side, I think you have the opportunity to do more good than you do on the defense," he said. In catastrophic injury cases, for example, "the verdict in their favor just completely changes the plaintiff's life. Where they were just sort of existing before, they can have the dignity of living, as all of us should."

In one case, a passenger was severely injured in a plane crash at Glacier Park International Airport. As his plane attempted to land, the left wing and body crashed into the ground before skidding hundreds of feet down the runway. The plaintiff suffered life-altering injuries to his back and spine, attributable to the defendant's failure to maintaining the aircraft and its parts. The firm helped him obtain a $995,000 settlement. Kersey v. KSZT, LLC, et al., DV-2015-1150B (Mont. 11th Jud. Dist. Ct., filed Dec. 15, 2015).

Partner Matthew McNicholas has a practice that is roughly half personal injury and products liability cases, half employment law. His employment practice is focused on police officers, firefighters, and sheriff's deputies in whistleblower and discrimination cases.

The firm obtained a $1.25 million settlement against the City of Los Angeles on behalf of LAPD Officer Victoria DeBellis and her husband Sergeant A.J. DeBellis after the couple experienced religious discrimination, sexual harassment, and physical harm. Victoria DeBellis was sexually harassed by a fellow officer, and when she rebuffed him, she was assigned to another department, where the harassment and discrimination worsened. Debellis v. City of Los Angeles, et al., BC540493 and BC541758 (L.A. Super. Ct. filed Mar. 26, 2014).

Such is the culture of law enforcement agencies, Matthew McNicholas said, where there is little incentive to change and what change does occur happens at a glacial pace.

Police employment cases are "the crossroads of many different legal and social threads," Matthew McNicholas said. "Unlike so many jobs, theirs is infused with a lot of social issues."

The complexity is compounded by the sheer size of some of the police organizations he works with. "LAPD has over 12,000 employees, a payroll of over a billion dollars a year, and have assets in the hundreds of billions. How many companies in the state can boast those facts? But they still have to follow employment law."

LAPD employment suits keep Matthew McNicholas busy, he said, because they don't operate like a typical employer. As a paramilitary organization, he said, "they're not subject to the free market, and they have a captive customer base. The settlements come out of the general fund from the city. There's no financial incentive for change, there is no cultural imperative for change."

The department has evolved, but slowly, he said, and race and gender issues still exist "because of the nature of the enterprise." Still, he said, trying cases to verdict is important, because that one verdict means 20 or 30 other cases may be avoided.

"I think being a modern, metropolitan, urban police officer in is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet to do properly," Matthew McNicholas said. "That is why we endow them with the privileges and trust of the badge. If somebody knocks on the door with an LAPD badge, you will open the door."

That's why these police employment cases resonate so much with jurors, he said. "Because jurors see a violation of that trust."

-- L.J. Williamson