Donna M. Melby

Melby piled up the frequent flyer miles over eight years successfully managing and litigating an immense nationwide race discrimination, retaliation and breach of contract case featuring 21 Black plaintiffs and two operations supervisors. Originally filed as a single suit in the Northern District of California, Melby persuaded the judge to sever the case into individual actions spread across the U.S. The move was strategically smart but logistically a strain. The last part of the last case is pending a decision in Virginia on attorney fees.

So you'd think the Paul Hasting partner and former co-chair of the firm's employment law practice would be happy to be grounded by the pandemic. But no, a different case required her in June to fly again several times over two weeks to Denver to attend depositions. "The high-ranking executives I represent are entitled to have their lawyers with them, and they want to be prepared," she said, explaining the necessity of again taking to the skies. "Some judges have vacated trial dates but have not changed the pretrial deadlines. So we have to work with those deadlines as though we a trial coming up."

Not that flying is easy now. "It's difficult on your best day and beyond difficult during Covid," Melby said. "The rules seemed to keep changing. Are the middle seats going to be filled or vacant? People still line up to get off and board in a really crowded way. Many people are not following any rules. It's a surreal world. If more than 70 percent of the plane is filled they let you know and let you rebook, but they have cut the number of flights so rebooking will make you late for your deposition. The challenges have increased, but I must say the planes are very clean and the flight attendants are enforcing mask wearing."

Melby requested that the clients not be named in the race discrimination case. But the results are clear. In 22 of 23 cases, she won on summary judgment or won after walkaways, with no payment by her clients. She has recovered fees and costs in most. In the remaining Virginia matter, she successfully argued before a 4th District Court of Appeals panel that more fees were appropriate; the panel sent the case back to the district court to consider whether she should recover additional fees from the three plaintiff firms involved.

-- John Roemer