Lieff Cabraser partner Kelly M. Dermody is featured in this week’s episode of the “55 Voices for Democracy” podcast with award-winning journalist Birte Meier. “55 Voices” is inspired by the 55 BBC radio addresses Thomas Mann delivered between 1940 and 1945 from his home in California, warning listeners in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the occupied Netherlands and Czechoslovakia of the dangers of fascism. “55 Voices” builds on that legacy, and this week, turns its focus toward the fight for equal pay, examining how California’s Equal Pay Act effectively protects against discrimination.
In the episode, Dermody, who has led several equal pay claims to success, speaks on how discrimination claims are generally messier than others. For the accused companies, it’s not just a matter of money, but also of honor: No one wants to be seen as being biased or paying sexist wages, so they regularly discredit individual plaintiffs as incompetent, lazy or crazy: “character assassination,” Dermody notes.
The series is presented by the Thomas Mann House in partnership with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Deutschlandfunk.
To view it, visit the Los Angeles Review of Books website.
About Kelly M. Dermody
The Managing Partner of Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office, Kelly M. Dermody specializes in class and collective actions on behalf of plaintiffs in civil rights, employment, and consumer cases, including gender discrimination cases against Google and Goldman Sachs. Additional case work includes wage suppression claims against technology, healthcare, and academic institutions; overtime and lost pay lawsuits for low-wage workers, I/T professionals, and foreign nationals working for American corporations; and ERISA claims that she has tried on behalf of employees and retirees for pension plan abuses. In 2020, Kelly led the team that successfully challenged the Trump Administration’s improper withholding of CARES Act stimulus funds from incarcerated Americans, leading to the release and distribution of $1.5 billion in stimulus funds, in what may be the single largest recovery for a targeted class from a single lawsuit in history.
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