V. James DeSimone

DeSimone learned about the power of activism at UCLA School of Law in the mid-1980s.

He served on the UCLA Civil Disobedience Committee, which urged university regents to divest from companies that did business in South Africa, then an apartheid government.

Not only did the regents do that - the California state government followed suit.

"It was especially poignant for these times," as the United States experiences a tumultuous debate over race and equality issues, he said. "Becoming an attorney who fights the constitutional rights of my clients is just a natural extension of those deeply held beliefs."

For more than 30 years, DeSimone's Marina Del Rey-based firm has specialized in employment and civil rights claims.

One of his more recent cases was Nicole Birden v. The Regents of the University of California BC663189 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed May 30, 2017).

The plaintiff alleged UCLA Santa Monica Hospital dispatchers harassed her because of her race, and that supervisors knew or should have known about it.

In 2019, a jury agreed and awarded Birden $1.57 million. The defendant's motion for new trial was denied and the case is now on appeal.

This February, Judge Michael L. Stern granted the plaintiff's motion for attorneys' fees totaling $808,341.

"It validated that a diverse jury could hear evidence of racial harassment by individuals of different ethnicities and still honor my client," said DeSimone. "The defendant made allegations against her, and what we were really able to show that she was a good employee, and they stereotyped her."

In another case, DeSimone represented a plaintiff who sued her former employer for wrongful termination and discrimination based on illness. Maria Lopez v. CIA Wheel Group et al., BC545112 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed May 7, 2014). DeSimone took over the case to represent Lopez, who succumbed to cancer earlier.

"Her children were in the courtroom every day," he said. "They felt completely that [their] mother's memory was honored, and although she was stricken with cancer that she worked hard. This company in a cruel way fired her because she had cancer."

After three days of testimony and closing argument, Judge Randolph M. Hammock awarded $15,000 in economic damages and made a punitive damage finding, according to the firm.

In the trial's second phase, Hammock awarded $500,000 in punitive damages to the family. The judge denied the defendant's motion for a new trial; The case is on appeal.

-- Karen Weil