Micha Star Liberty

Sexual Abuse & Assault Victims’ Rights

Liberty represents survivors of sexual assault, abuse and harassment, especially children and people with special needs.

She often represents students abused by teachers or school staff. For instance, she currently represents a couple of kindergarten-age girls sexually assaulted on a school bus by a middle-school boy.

Late last month, she argued to the state Supreme Court on behalf of a severely autistic boy sexually assaulted by students and a school employee. The issue in the case is whether the Unruh Civil Rights act applies to schools and not just to businesses. Brennon B. v. Superior Court (West Contra Costa Unified School District), S266254 (Cal., filed Dec. 23, 2020).

For the last several years, she also has worked to hold medical providers accountable for sexual abuse. In one highly unusual case, she succeeded in persuading Kaiser Permanente to issue an apology to a female patient sexually assaulted by an aide. Doe v. Kaiser Permanente Corp., RG18892408 (Ala. Super. Ct., filed April 18, 2018).

During the pandemic, however, she decided to do more to help people like her clients. “I’ve tried to come up with a way to wrap my arms around the assault and abuse that I see every day and come up with different ways to solve the same problems,” she said.

She launched two businesses to help companies and law firms prevent sex-based abuse and to improve how they respond when assaults happen.

One, named Lionhearted Leader, offers training. Liberty and other trainers “go into the belly of the beast, so to speak,” to teach corporations, nonprofits and other entities ways to address sexual harassment. Programs include ones on leadership training and “trauma-informed training” on interacting with survivors.

Her other business, the Soaring Center, provides consulting services for abuse, harassment or trauma survivors and their advocates.

“My heart and soul is as a plaintiff’s lawyer. I just felt there was a lot more that could be done and should be done to help the community that I litigate on behalf of,” Liberty said.

– Don DeBenedictis