Carol Gillam is founder and president of The Gillam Law Firm, a firm devoted principally to employee rights litigation. Carol has been named one of the top employment lawyers in California by the Daily Journal 11 consecutive times.

Carol is an acclaimed trial lawyer, having won many challenging and hard-fought cases in federal and state courts throughout California. She has litigated in states across the country, and before federal and state agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Merit Systems Protection Board. She has brought and successfully resolved numerous cases alleging gender, race and religious discrimination and failure to accommodate, in addition to handling age, disability, FMLA, sexual harassment, whistleblower and other challenging cases.

WHISTLEBLOWER LITIGATION

Recently she has received nationwide coverage of her work in a prominent federal whistleblower case that has resulted in four published opinions expanding the rights of whistleblowers.

CLASS ACTION WORK

Carol has successfully litigated several class action cases recently, being appointed as class counsel and achieving millions of dollars and other relief for California workers.

CAROL’S PRESENTATIONS AT CONFERENCES

Carol has moderated and presented to national conferences of lawyers including the American Bar Association and the National Employment Lawyers Association. Topics have included: trial techniques in federal court; proving harassment in cases involving religious, racial and other (non-sex) harassment issues; religious harassment and accommodation; workplace feedback issues; and LGBTQ issues in the workplace.

She also conducted a mock trial before a statewide audience of lawyers — a demonstration of how to try a sexual harassment case. Carol has also demonstrated how to conduct jury voir dire in a conference for trial lawyers, how to take a deposition and how to examine an expert witness. Other topics she has spoken on to large audiences include the subjects of cultural competence for lawyers; class action waivers in arbitration; how to try a disability case; the intersection between disability and workers compensation; how to prepare and try an employment case; the use of character and “me too” evidence in trial; and meeting the challenges of dealing with difficult opposing counsel.

CAROL’S WRITING AND EDITING WORK

Carol has published articles in law journals on the Private Attorneys General Act; on no-fault attendance policies; and an article entitled “Lessons from History: What Title VII Can Teach Wage and Hour Practitioners.”

Carol is on the editorial board of Labor and Employment Law Review, which is published six times annually.

CAROL’S SERVICE AS ARBITRATOR, MEDIATOR AND EXPERT WITNESS

Carol serves as a mediator on the Central District of California’s federal mediation panel, appointed by the judges of that court. She also serves as an arbitrator through the American Arbitration Association. Carol has qualified as an expert witness and had her testimony accepted as the basis for finding liability.

CAROL’S PAST WORK EXPERIENCE

After stints at Keck Mahin & Cate in Chicago and Irell and Manella in Los Angeles, Ms. Gillam became an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California in 1988. While there she prosecuted numerous well publicized cases, including a notorious case involving abuses of migrant workers that resulted in worldwide publicity and the largest restitution award achieved to that date by the U.S. Department of Justice in such a case.

Since leaving the government in 1994 to open her firm, Ms. Gillam has obtained  numerous 7-figure settlements and verdicts (and scores of 6-figure verdicts and settlements) in employment cases. She has litigated in federal and state courts throughout California and in states across the country, as well as before the EEOC and MSPB, handling a wide variety of complex cases.

CAROL’S TEACHING AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND AND HONORS

She graduated from Northwestern University with honors in 1974 and holds a law degree from Loyola University of Chicago (1978), where she graduated near the top of her class, was associate editor of the law review, oversaw a symposium on employment law, published an oft-cited law review article, was her Class Representative and received a fellowship to help draft a treatise on tax consequences of dissolution of marriage.

Carol also attended the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

She served as an adjunct professor of antitrust law for three years.

CAROL’S SERVICE TO THE BAR AND PEER RECOGNITION

The State Bar of California appointed Carol to the Executive Committee of its Labor and Employment Section where she served for five years and chaired its annual conference.

She has served as a member of the Executive Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association for a number of years. This is the largest association of its kind in the United States.

Ms. Gillam has been a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers since her induction in 2010. Election as a Fellow is the highest recognition by one’s colleagues of sustained outstanding performance in the profession, exemplifying integrity, dedication and excellence. She has served on the Ninth Circuit Credentialing Committee to vet prospective fellows, including chairing the committee from 2018 to 2020.

Carol has been named a Superlawyer every year from 2010 through 2022. She has also been named one of the Best Lawyers in America annually from 2014 to 2022. Her firm has been named one of the Best Law Firms in America for the past several years as well. She is regularly named to other lists of best lawyers, best women lawyers and best trial lawyers that appear in major national and international publications.

She was also honored as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, an honorary organization of judges, lawyers and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the welfare of their communities and the highest principles of the legal profession. Election as a fellow is limited to the top 1/3 of one percent of the profession.

The Gillam Law Firm

The Gillam Law Firm vigorously pursues the rights of former and current employees who have been wronged by their employers. We are as skilled at assertively litigating cases as we are at designing non-litigation resolutions to your situation. Our goal is to provide the highest quality legal services to you and your business in a timely fashion. We welcome the opportunity to talk with you and to discuss how we may be of service.