Carol L. Gillam

Gillam focuses on advocacy for whistleblower rights and the rights of women to achieve pay parity in traditionally male-dominated fields.

She's sitting out the coronavirus crisis by working from a vacation home she owns in a small fishing village on the Baja Peninsula.

"I got tired of being quarantined in L.A.," she said. "Here, I can with very little difficulty avoid getting within 10 feet of anyone."

Last year she persuaded a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel to reverse denial of class certification in a case Gillam filed on behalf of bus drivers who allegedly faced a range of state labor violations. Humes v. First Student Inc., 17-17072 (9th, opinion filed Feb. 1, 2019).

The reversal led to a $700,000 settlement that won final approval in April 2020. "That was about $1,000 per driver," Gillam said. The opinion held as a matter of first impression that a 2013 amendment to the state Labor Code was clarifying only, not prescriptive, and therefore applied to claims arising before the amendment was enacted.

Gillam obtained another important decision in a long-running federal whistleblower case in which her client, an auditor, reported alleged violations by a financial services company. Each major claim Gillam asserted for her client survived summary judgment, including claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the state Labor Code. U.S District Judge Cynthia A. Bashant of San Diego has issued several rulings in the case that have been widely cited for setting the contours of claims for whistleblower protection. Erhart v. BofI Holding Inc., 15-cv-02287 (S.D. Cal., filed Oct. 13, 2015).

"We've been through every motion the defense could think of, and they have litigated every one very aggressively," Gillam said. "No matter how hard the defense has attacked our claims, we're going to have a trial." No date has been set.

In a case against a tough defendant, Gillam is challenging the FBI's physical fitness test standards for applicants to become federal agents. The complaint seeks injunctive relief to require the FBI to accept applicants with disabilities who can perform the essential functions of the job, and to end the practice of allowing test observers discretion regarding how to score the test. Correa v. Barr, 8:20-cv-00806 (C.D. Cal., filed April 24, 2020).

"Every employment lawyer is scared to death to tackle the FBI," Gillam said. "But not much bothers me. When I worked as a U.S. attorney I did a lot of work with the FBI, and I admire them. But they are way behind the curve on these employment issues."

-- John Roemer