Wendy E. Musell

Musell is the managing partner of the shop she opened last August to represent public and private sector employees claiming wage theft, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation.

“Most of us have to work, and that’s where most discrimination and harassment take place,” she said. Musell experienced those problems first hand. “My mom worked three jobs as a single parent and we grew up poor. I’ve been working since I was 12. I put myself through college and law school working in the service industry and I was often accosted for sexual favors as a server and hostess in restaurants. And of course we still hear stories like that today about what the working poor go through.”

Musell takes on tough issues, such as bias in the California judiciary, disability discrimination against hearing-impaired civilian U.S. Air Force workers, brutality against inmates by state prison guards and an alleged culture of discrimination in the Lake County district attorney’s office.

In what may be her most audacious current case, she is suing the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s San Francisco office on claims that a worker for the agency suffered the very discrimination and retaliation that the EEOC was established to combat. Kigasari v. Dhillon, 4:20-cv-01521 (N.D. Cal., filed March 2, 2020).

The named defendant is Janet Dhillon, the chair of the commission. “I was amazed at the hypocrisy of an agency that is supposed to enforce the law,” Musell said. She’s pursuing the case alongside colleagues from Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams LLP, where she is of counsel.

“A friend told me he would never sue the EEOC or the IRS,” she added, “and I told him that I have already sued the IRS.” She said she resolved on favorable terms a disability discrimination against the tax agency some years ago.

Musell holds the EEOC in high regard, so it was a disappointment to learn that her client—whom she describes as gender non-conforming Iranian lesbian over 50—experienced discrimination, was called the c-word and was eventually forced to retire. “She found that all of her qualities were strikes against her,” Musell said. A settlement conference is scheduled, she said.

In a separate matter, she has recently moved for certification of a class of deaf or hard of hearing civilian workers who allege the U.S. Air Force discriminates against them due to their disability. Weimer v. Barrett, Secretary, Department of Air Force, 550-2021-00060X (EEOC, class cert. petition filed Feb. 11, 2021).

“This is a problem that originates at the very highest level and will require systemic change,” Musell said. She added that she’s aware of the irony of seeking justice from an agency that she’s suing. “No one said that I didn’t have chutzpah.”

— John Roemer