Lawrance A. Bohm

Bohm is the president and lead trial attorney of the group he founded in 2005 and has expanded with offices now in Stockton, Woodland Hills, Marina Del Rey and San Diego. The firm focuses on employment and civil rights cases.

Last year Bohm described himself amid the pandemic court slowdown as “a samurai with no battles” who with his team was “sharpening our swords and polishing our shields” while awaiting a return to action. This year, he said, “The sword-makers are back in business. I have great cases with great facts just waiting to be tried.”

In October, he’s scheduled to try a case for a veteran neonatal nurse who was fired, allegedly for complaining that the infant intensive care unit at the hospital where she was employed was understaffed, placing babies at risk. Churchon v. Sutter Valley Hospitals, 34-2018-00230710 (Sacramento Co. Super. Ct., filed April 10, 2018).

The plaintiff, nurse manager Jane Churchon, was labeled disloyal for complaining about staffing ratios in the neonatal clinic and for her outspoken efforts to organize a union at the hospital, according to court papers. In 2017 she stood up at a town hall meeting and voiced her concerns directly to the Sutter Medical Center CEO. She was placed on administrative leave the next day and was fired for being hostile and disruptive. The court largely denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case.

“This trial is going to be a doozy,” Bohm predicted.

Also in October he’s scheduled for another trial in the case of client who was allegedly fired from her job as senior director of sales and marketing at the San Francisco offices of a design firm as a result of her manager’s hostility over her pregnancy. The hostility led the woman to take anti-anxiety medication; she was terminated while on leave after giving birth, Bohm’s complaint says. Lyman v. Ideo LP, CGC-20-582985 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 25, 2020).

He’s currently in a state appellate court defending his $3.4 million win in general and punitive damages for a hospital pharmacist who was fired after reporting fraud and other illegal behavior related to prescription narcotics. Kazminy v. Dignity Health, CV161989 (Yolo Co. Super. Ct., filed April 4, 2019).

“The other side’s appellate brief was a lackluster effort,” he said. “They mostly just repeated the arguments they made in the trial court. We’re working on our reply.”

A feature of the case is that a change in the law will allow him to seek attorney fees. “We’ll be asking for $1.5 million to $2 million,” he said.

— John Roemer