Courtney C. McNicholas

As a lawyer, McNicholas forged a path for herself specializing in harassment, discrimination and retaliation suits involving law enforcement and firefighters.

Recently, she helped obtain a $2.5 million settlement on behalf of four officers from the Internal Surveillance Unit, an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Operations Division designed to "police the police," as she put it, by embedding unit members in different situations to root out bad actors.

In 2011, when the division commander unilaterally altered schedules in violation of contract terms, a number of officers sought advice from the union. They were immediately threaten with being removed.

The stakes were high. People who serve in the Internal Surveillance Unit are often given new identities when they move on in order to survive the "code of silence" that pervades the force, McNicholas said. To be ousted and possibly outed as "snitches" could have put them in severe danger, she said. Greg G. v. City of Los Angeles, BC478101 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 26, 2012).

The case ultimately settled in January on the eve of trial and the mayor approved the final amount owed to the officers in April.

"There's generally a retaliatory element that is pretty egregious and people on juries don't like that," McNicholas said. "People don't like it when people who stand up for the right thing or refuse to go along with the wrong thing are bullied or retaliated against because of it."

McNicholas calls the case her "baby," having invested over seven years of her life into it, but the whistleblower suit involving the forensic analyst who broke open a widely publicized cold case involving an LAPD detective has put a spotlight on her work. The case, which is ongoing, alleges the analyst, whose DNA test confirmed the detective murdered a Van Nuys woman in her home, was repeatedly deterred in her investigation into the detective some eight years prior to her conviction. Jennifer Francis v. City of Los Angeles Police Department, BC526258 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 30, 2013)

McNicholas said the case itself was unique and fascinating, but the common thread in the work that keeps her motivated are the intricacies she gets to learn about in the process. DNA analysis, undercover operations, bomb squads are not often taught in law school.

"They're all interesting to the extent there is this whole world operating around this city," she said.

--Paula Lehman-Ewing