Genie E. Harrison  

Genie E. Harrison is the president and lead trial counsel of the plaintiff-side women’s rights and employment law boutique she founded a decade ago, Genie Harrison Law Firm, APC. By design, all her lawyers and legal staff are women.

She points out that her director of operations is a male. “He’s a great professional, like everybody’s really good uncle,” she said. “He does really well with all the female energy we produce.”

Harrison has been known to flaunt on her T-shirt the slogan that sums up her legal response to what she calls an outdated patriarchal system: “Grab ’em by the Verdict.”

In honor of E. Jean Carroll’s big win in the Donald J. Trump sexual assault and defamation case, Harrison is having a special edition printed that she intends to give away. It reads: “She grabbed him by the verdict.”

Harrison’s cases reflect her aggressive approach on behalf of women clients.

On May 16, 2023, the court granted final approval of the $100 million settlement in women employees’ equal pay class action against video game maker Riot Games, Inc. Claims included allegations that bosses fostered a hostile and toxic work environment for female workers.

When the plaintiffs were dissatisfied with an earlier $10 million deal, Harrison and co-counsel entered the case and changed its financial outcome dramatically. McCracken et al. v. Riot Games, Inc., 18STCV03957 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 6, 2018).

Harrison isn’t ready to say the defendant’s on-the-job problems have been resolved. “The question now is, how do employees experience their reformed workplace? I can just tell you that the phone doesn’t stop ringing,” Harrison said of the fallout from the settlement.

Two new cases this year challenge the National Football League’s workplace practices and culture regarding female employees and Tesla, Inc.’s alleged failure to provide lactation facilities for female workers.

“It’s important to have a dedicated room where women can have privacy,” she said, adding that her lead plaintiff was watched by a male co-worker while she pumped breast milk. Perkins v. Tesla, Inc., 3:23-cv-02084 (N.D. Cal., filed April 28, 2023).

Harrison was a key member of the plaintiff team that won a $17 million settlement for survivors of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual battery. That work got her the Consumer Attorney of the Year Award for 2022 from the Consumer Attorneys Association of California. Rehal v. Weinstein et al., 1:18-cv-00674 (S.D. N.Y., filed Jan. 25, 2018).

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d receive that honor,” she said. “These are not things I expect. I just do the work.”

— John Roemer