Tamara Freeze

Workplace Justice Advocates • Irvine


Tamara Freeze specializes in whistleblower retaliation, discrimination harassment and the Equal Pay Act. Her career in employment law spans 19 years, marked by a significant $25 million whistleblower retaliation verdict in 2017. More recently, she secured a substantial verdict against a school district in a similar case.


Freeze represented a security guard from Redlands East Valley High School, who was unjustly terminated for reporting a student's drug possession and the subsequent cover-up by school officials and a sheriff. Davis v. Redlands Unified School District, CIVSB2103756 (San Bern. Sup. Ct., filed Jan. 19, 2021). 


Her pursuit of justice led to an $800,000 jury verdict for her client.


"The district came up with nine separate grounds for termination of our client and called a San Bernardino Sheriff's Deputy to testify against our client," she said. "I had to rebut each accusation and demonstrate to the jury that all nine reasons for termination were pretext."


Her journey began at Berkeley Law, where an employment discrimination class resonated with her, revealing her true passion. Although initially inclined to represent employers, Freeze discovered her plaintiff's heart and, in 2009, founded her own plaintiff-side employment law firm, finding great satisfaction in her work.


Freeze said fellow labor and employment lawyer Bernard Alexander was hands down her biggest role model.


"He believed in me as a baby lawyer and inspired me to be a trial attorney," she said "I watched many of his trials -- some he won, some he lost. But his passion for his clients, especially low-income and those who have no voice, is absolutely magical. Someone should sell tickets to his closing arguments, they are so good!"


In another challenging case, Freeze advocated for Jennifer Hua, a database administrator who faced pay disparity. Hua v. Western Asset Management, 19STCV31305 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Sept. 3, 2019).


Despite the complex nature of comparing roles within computer science, Freeze's expertise shone through, resulting in a victory that included more than $1 million in attorney's fees.


"The subject matter was extremely difficult," she said. "Computer science was my worst subject in high school, I barely passed the class. I majored in political science in college. I had zero education or training in computer science terminology and concepts. During litigation and at trial, I had to prove that the experienced female database administrator's job duties were substantially similar to her male peers. It took many hours of learning computer science/engineering terminology, going over each job description and comparative analysis."