Carol Gillam is founder and president of The Gillam Law Firm, a Los Angeles firm devoted principally to employee rights litigation. Carol has been named to the prestigious list of top employment lawyers in California by the Daily Journal an unprecedented 13 consecutive times. In 2023, the Daily Journal has also named her one of the top 100 women attorneys in California across all fields of practice, an honor accorded to just over 1/10 of 1% of such attorneys. She has received numerous awards recognizing her nationally as well.

Other accolades include:

• Best Lawyers in America, 2014-2024

• Super Lawyer 2010-2024

• Top 50 Labor & Employment Verdicts in United States 2022

• Top 100 Verdicts in California 2022

• Law Dragon 500 Leading Civil Rights and Plaintiff Employment Lawyers 2018-2024

• Best Law Firms in America, 2015-2024

• Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow, 2010-2023

• College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Fellow, 2010-2023

• American Bar Foundation, Fellow, 2010-2023

• Top 50 Labor and Employment Verdicts in the US 2022

• Top 100 Verdicts in California 2022

• Top 100 Labor and Employment Verdicts in the US 2022

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.

Carol has represented C-suite executives, numerous physicians, attorneys, accountants, professors of law and medicine, and a wide variety of other clients over the years.

WHISTLEBLOWER LITIGATION

Carol and her colleague Sara Heum obtained an important jury verdict in a federal whistleblower case involving Sarbanes-Oxley and a state whistleblower law. The judge in the Southern District of California entered judgment on the verdict of $1.5 million for emotional and reputational harm, as well as over $2.4 million in attorney fees, plus costs and prejudgment interest (2023). The case has received nationwide coverage of their work in expanding the rights of whistleblowers, including several published court opinions.

Carol and Sara obtained complete reversal of a judgment against a whistleblower from the California Court of Appeal in San Diego in December 2023.

Carol and Sara have received nationwide publicity for recently filed lawsuits on behalf of three senior women physicians blowing the whistle on a wide range of unlawful conduct at a prestigious teaching hospital, Harbor UCLA Medical Center (2023).

Carol and Sara won nearly $1 million from a Los Angeles jury for a female whistleblower claiming retaliation in the pharmaceutical industry (2022).

Carol won a mid-6-figure verdict from a Los Angeles jury for a Latino whistleblower at a prominent promotional merchandise company (2023).

Carol has obtained significant settlements on behalf of whistleblowers in a wide range of public and private workplaces, doing cutting edge work in many highly challenging cases.

CLASS ACTION WORK

Carol has successfully litigated a number of class action cases, being appointed as class counsel and achieving millions of dollars and other relief for California workers. She won an important ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in one such case.

CAROL'S PRESENTATIONS AT CONFERENCES

Carol has moderated and presented to national conferences of lawyers including the American Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association and ALI-ABA on numerous occasions. 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; Private Attorneys General Act litigation; LGBTQ issues in the workplace; jury selection techniques and use of experts in employment litigation.

She 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 multiple conferences for trial lawyers; how to prepare and try a disability case; how to take a deposition; how to try an employment case; 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; the intersection between disability and workers compensation laws; 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 and her colleague Sara Heum published an article in the December 19, 2023 edition of the Daily Journal titled “Reverse Discrimination Analysis Is Likely to Face a Historic Shift.”

Carol and Sara published an article in the August 2, 2023 edition of the Daily Journal titled, “Microaggressions: Trivial Slights or Evidence of Discriminatory Animus?” (co-author Sara Heum).

Carol has published articles in law journals including on the Private Attorneys General Act, 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 nationally recognized law firms 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 2024. She has also been named one of the Best Lawyers in America annually from 2014 to 2023. Her firm has been named one of the Best Law Firms in America from 2015 to 2023. 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.

PERSONAL

Carol has been a trailblazer – one of the extremely rare female BigLaw trial lawyers in the country when she began her career working on significant multidistrict litigation cases. She birthed and raised four wonderful children while juggling the demands of a challenging legal career -- and (mostly) managing to maintain a sense of humor throughout. She has five grandchildren who are just as terrific as their parents. She intends to continue practicing law at the highest levels of the profession for many years to come.

Sara Heum is an attorney at The Gillam Law Firm.  Her practice focuses on state and federal single-plaintiff employment litigation, including claims of discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, gender, religion, and disability.  Ms. Heum also handles wage and hour class action cases.  

Ms. Heum graduated from USC Gould School of Law where she was a recipient of the Carl Mason Franklin Award in International Law and an AmJur award for excellence in International Sales of Goods.  During law school, Ms. Heum participated in the Jessup International Moot Court Pacific Super Regional competition, reaching the quarterfinals and garnering awards for Best Oralist and Best Memorial.  She interned at TMZ and an entertainment law firm, where she worked on copyright and media law issues.  She also externed in United States Bankruptcy Court.

Ms. Heum obtained her B.A. from UC Berkeley, graduating with High Distinction in General Scholarship.  She was a Regents’ Scholar, the most prestigious scholarship in the University of California system.  

Prior to law school, Ms. Heum was a Program Analyst at the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training, where she helped implement international justice sector assistance programs.

Ms. Heum is admitted to practice in California, and in U.S. District Court for the Central, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Districts of California.  She is a member of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA), National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), the State Bar Labor and Employment section, the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section, and the Arab-American Lawyers Association of Southern California. In her free time, Ms. Heum enjoys staying active, traveling, and spending time with her family.  Ms. Heum speaks Arabic, French, and basic Spanish.