Lynne C. Hermle 

Lynne C. Hermle is a prominent employment litigator who is well-known for winning defense verdicts in high-profile jury trials for major clients. She has represented major brands in tech, retail and other fields, including The Gap, Genentech, Microsoft, Sears, Burlington Coat Factory and Williams Sonoma.

This past year, she represented Goldman Sachs in finally reaching a settlement in the nation’s longest-running gender discrimination action. The Wall Street giant agreed to pay $280 million to resolve claims on behalf of 2,800 past and present female employees. The deal announced May 10 came just about a year after Hermle joined the 13-year-old case as lead counsel. Chen-Oster v. Goldman, Sachs & Co. LLC, 1:10-cv-06950 (S.D. N.Y., filed Sept. 15, 2010).

Meanwhile, the next trial on her calendar is a wrongful termination and gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a former in-house attorney against the broadband software company where she used to work. It is set for May 2024. Bettiga v. Calix, Inc., SCV-264229 (Sonoma Super. Ct., filed Jan. 12, 2020).

Hermle never discusses her cases publicly, but she said that she has been advising several law firms about employment problems, including helping them with investigations into alleged wrongdoing by attorneys.

In a related matter, she is defending Kirkland & Ellis and several partners in a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by a former intellectual property associate. Kovalenko v. Kirkland & Ellis LLP, 3:22-cv-05990 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 11, 2022).

Hermle said that while she has been consulting with the law firms, she has been intrigued to discover how they operate and are structured. It interests her because of the many years she spent in management positions and on the board at her own firm.

“It’s fascinating to me to see how firms manage and govern themselves differently in a variety of ways,” she said. “How they make decisions about compensation and admission of partners, and how open or confidentially they keep information on those types of topics. It’s just very interesting.”

Hermle is just wrapping up her second six-year term on the Orrick Board, which is the firm’s board of directors. She was on the board as a junior partner about 25 years ago, she said. Then, when Mitchell Zuklie became Orrick chairman in about 2014, he appointed her to the firm’s separate executive committee for a time.

When her current term on the board ends, she will be termed out. “I will be off the board and solely focused on my practice, and that’ll be an interesting experience after so many years of management and board service,” Hermle said.

—Don DeBenedictis