Kelly M. Dermody

Dermody, the managing partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, in San Francisco, focuses on class and collective actions on behalf of employees. Like most firms, her office has been shuttered since March. "We are completely shut down and working 100 percent remotely," she said. "We have forbidden anyone from going in, to keep safe the one person who goes once a week to check hard copy mail."

That situation could persist. "We don't intend to be the first to reopen. We aren't going to be the guinea pig. A lot of people are eager to get back together with colleagues, but there are a lot of collective concerns about elevators, public transportation and conference rooms. We are definitely going to slow walk this. We would much rather have people stay home and support them remotely. You may not see much of us until we have a high degree of confidence in our safety."

In the firm's major gender discrimination class action against Google Inc., Dermody said a key moment is near. "We're powering ahead and about ready to file our motion for class certification, and we are excited to push forward this area of law under the California Equal Pay Act." The litigation could involve as many as 8,300 current and former Google employees who allege Google has paid women less than men for substantially equal or similar work in California. Ellis v. Google Inc., CGC-17-561299 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 14, 2017).

Meanwhile, Dermody is enthusiastic about her employment practice group's embrace of a consciousness-raising project developed around the African American experience. Launched in February, well before the current national upheavals over police shootings, the Lieff Cabraser team created a syllabus of short assignments to enable participants to more deeply understand the intersections of power, privilege, supremacy, equity and race. "We wanted to apply to ourselves the lessons we have learned representing clients of color in discrimination cases," she said.

A Lieff Cabraser press release in mid-June quoted James Baldwin: "There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now."

The release announced that the 21-day syllabus has been shared with corporate general counsel, diversity and inclusion professionals and opposing counsel from big law firms. It has been adopted by the ABA's Labor & Employment Law Section. "It's a racial equality habit-building process," Dermody said. "It's not linear, it's immersive like a snowfall. It turns out to be the topic of the moment now, and it's the thing I am most proud of."

-- John Roemer