Matthew S. McNicholas

Personal Injury & Employment

Defending cops and firefighters, Matthew S. McNicholas has built a practice within his family firm, McNicholas & McNicholas LLP. Begun by his father, founding partner John P. McNicholas, the 17-attorney litigation boutique now numbers three of the patriarch’s children on its roster.

“My brother Pat and I and our sister Courtney are here now. I know that not all family experiences work out well, but this works for us,” Matthew S. McNicholas said.

He pointed out that it is notoriously difficult to uncover what goes on behind the closed doors of many police and fire departments, but a deep roster of clients in uniform helps in his efforts to keep the brass accountable.

In April, McNicholas obtained a $3 million settlement for six firefighter clients who blew the whistle on shoddy and rushed building fire safety inspections. “This came out of revelations that the L.A. Fire Department was thousands of structures behind in building safety inspections and they rushed the process trying to catch up,” McNicholas said. “These were schools, hospitals, commercial buildings, and the fire prevention bureau was cutting corners instead of doing full safety reviews.” Boyd et al. v. City of Los Angeles, BC648879 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Feb. 1, 2017).

At one firefighters’ protest meeting, department officials showed up and threatened to take names. “It sounded like McCarthyism,” McNicholas said, referring to the blacklisting and threats against alleged communists of the U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy era in the early 1950s.

“As a result of our suit, there have been positive changes at the department’s Fire Prevention Bureau,” McNicholas said. “I’m proud of that. We showed what happens when you cut corners and now we have a precedent that unions can keep in their arsenal.”

As protests over the death of George Floyd led to a $150 million cut in the Los Angeles Police Department budget in 2020, four veteran officers were accused of taking part in a so-called “blue flu” sickout during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

McNicholas represented the officers as strategic plaintiffs among many others also accused and allegedly unfairly disciplined. He obtained $40,000 payouts for each of the four, plus backtracking by the department on discipline against several hundred others. Aguilar et al. v. City of Los Angeles, 20STCV43205 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 10, 2020).

“The department took career-threatening action and issued blanket punishments,” McNicholas said. “They ignored our detailed letters and told us to go pound sand. But we got 100% of the discipline withdrawn. And I had very happy clients.”

– John Roemer