Genie E. Harrison

LOS ANGELES - Genie E. Harrison's been having a very good year. Just last month, about 2,400 former or current female Riot Games employees or contractors she represents received notice that the video game maker is paying $100 million to settle the class action brought against it for gender discrimination.

A minimum of $77 million will be paid directly to class members, with individual women receiving from $7,500 to $80,000, Harrison said. "It's going to make a real difference for the women."

In addition, the settlement provides what she called significant programmatic relief, including a company-funded diversity and inclusion program, independent analyses of gender equity in pay and job assignments, a database of discrimination and harassment complaints and new procedures to move independent contractors into employee positions. McCracken, v. Riot Games, Inc., 18STCV03957 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 6, 2018).

Late last year, several of Harrison's clients shared in the $17 million settlement paid out to victims of Harvey Weinstein's sexual assaults. In re: The Weinstein Company Holdings LLC, 1:18-bk-10601 (D. Del., filed March 19, 2018).

Harrison, along with a number of peers, had a very different sort of victory last year when the Legislature put a stop to State Bar efforts toward licensing some nonlawyers to provide limited legal services to consumers. She was especially concerned that the bar's Paraprofessional Program Working Group also was exploring ways of allowing corporations to own law firms or practice law, she said.

In the new State Bar dues bill, AB 2958, lawmakers effectively told bar leaders to focus instead on attorney discipline and to increase access to justice only for people who qualify for legal aid or legitimate immigration legal services.

She credits the move at least in part to "our collective effort to educate and inform the State Bar Board of Trustees."

"I put in many hundreds of hours into the work with regard to the State Bar issues going on the past three years," Harrison said. "So it's very satisfying to me to see the State Bar be properly focused."