Gina Browne

Browne represents California employees in class actions and individual suits over workplace harassment, discrimination, disability accommodation, wrongful termination, and overtime pay and meal and rest break violations.

She started as a law clerk and joined as an attorney straight out of law school in 2003. In February 2021, she and law partner Lee R. Feldman relocated to new offices while former name partner Alicia Olivares launched her own firm in Manhattan Beach.

Browne said she had wanted to be a lawyer ever since sixth grade in Reno, Nevada, when she was an enthusiastic participant in an after school law program. “The DA was involved, and we got to go to juvenile court,” she recalled. “I loved it.” Then she got sidetracked, she said, into a career in movie and TV production. When that ended, law school beckoned.

“I thought I’d do entertainment law, but employment issues caught my interest. To meet people and tell their stories was more compelling than writing contracts.”

Covid-19 had an impact on the former firm’s breakup because the office lease expired and their remote work life inspired them to go separate ways. “The partnership was a victim of Covid,” Browne said. “We got a much smaller office and we all found different ways of handling our cases. Working from home will be much more of a norm in the future.”

In 2020 Browne concluded a case for client Maribel Galan, who sued a charter school at which she worked as superintendent after a cascade of workplace disputes that began with a 2017 text message. According to Browne’s complaint, the school’s CEO, Xavier Reyes, said he planned to fill a parent coordinator post with a male, adding, “we’ve always had women and for some reason, they have not worked, no offense, just facts.”

Galen responded, “Offense taken,” and later claimed the incident led to her questions about Reyes’ possible financial mismanagement and ultimately to retaliation, gender discrimination and her wrongful termination. Galen v. Alta Public Schools, 18STCV05944 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 20, 2018).

“We resolved the matter last year confidentially and amicably,” Browne said.

Browne works on the California Employment Lawyers Association’s legislative committee. She wrote part of the language in AB 9 to extend the deadline for filing a Department of Fair Employment and Housing complaint and to clarify filing requirements. She said that employers were trying to use prior language in the law to assert that plaintiffs, including some of her clients, had not filed timely complaints.

“I have continued working on legislation to prevent employers from exploiting the unintended consequences in the DFEH process,” she said.

Browne is a former NCAA Division One conference champion long-distance runner. Last year she fought through the pandemic by reviving her skills and competing in her triathlete club, where she finished 15 out of 102 in the all-gender competition. “I got back into it,” she said.

— John Roemer