This guide compares 10 San Diego workplace discrimination lawyers and law firms that represent employees in claims under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and federal laws such as Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA. Each firm was evaluated on three things: the background and credentials of its lead attorneys, how much of its practice is devoted to employee-side discrimination, harassment, and retaliation work, and whether discrimination is a dedicated practice or one item on a long list of services. Offices in downtown San Diego, La Jolla, and La Mesa are included, along with firms that handle cases across San Diego County.
When comparing firms, three practical questions matter most. Does the attorney handle FEHA claims through the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) and the EEOC, and then in San Diego County Superior Court or the Southern District of California? Is the firm built for individual discrimination claims, or is its work weighted toward class actions and other practice areas? And who will actually be handling your case day to day? This list is not ranked and not sponsored. Firm details come from each firm’s own website, State Bar of California records, and attorney directories such as Avvo, Super Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell, with ratings cited only where a specific figure is used.
1. The Law Office of Frank S. Clowney III
- Attorney/Key Figure: Frank S. Clowney III, Founder and Senior Attorney
- Headquarters: 101 West Broadway, Suite 1460, San Diego, CA 92101 (also serves Carlsbad, Escondido, Oceanside, and Chula Vista)
- Phone: 619-557-0458
- Website: clowneylaw.com
- Practice Areas: Workplace discrimination (age, disability, gender, race, LGBTQ, pregnancy, sexual orientation), sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, wage and hour, FMLA, whistleblower and qui tam, employee misclassification, plus personal injury and maritime law
- Firm Size: Boutique, led by one attorney with more than four decades of experience
- Practice Area Page: San Diego Workplace Discrimination Lawyer
- Social Profiles: Facebook, X
Frank S. Clowney III was admitted to the California Bar in 1978 and has built his practice around employment law, which makes up about 60 percent of his caseload. He is admitted to the federal district courts for the Southern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and to the Ninth Circuit, and he has been a member of the San Diego County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section since 1985 and the California Employment Lawyers Association since 2000. He has also served on the San Diego Superior Court arbitration panel since 1990 and as a State Bar fee arbitrator, which gives him a view of how disputes are resolved from both sides of the table.
What sets the firm apart on discrimination matters is its range of dedicated pages for age, disability, gender, race, LGBTQ, pregnancy, and sexual orientation claims, and its practice of limiting the number of cases it accepts so clients keep direct contact with the attorney handling their file. Clowney tailors the approach to the client, pursuing early negotiation or mediation when that fits and preparing for trial when it does not. Free consultations are offered, and the firm walks clients through the CRD complaint and right-to-sue process.
2. Jimenez Loayza, APC
- Attorney/Key Figure: Marisol Jimenez Loayza and Francisco A. Loayza, Founding Partners
- Headquarters: 1901 First Avenue, Suite 424, San Diego, CA 92101
- Phone: (619) 320-5901
- Website: jimenezloayza.com
- Practice Areas: Workplace discrimination (age, disability, pregnancy, race, religion), sexual harassment and hostile work environment, wrongful termination, retaliation, whistleblower claims, wage and hour, misclassification, PAGA claims, employment class actions
- Firm Size: Boutique with two founding partners, both selected to Super Lawyers Rising Stars
- Practice Area Page: San Diego Workplace Discrimination Lawyer
- Social Profiles: Facebook, LinkedIn
Jimenez Loayza represents employees exclusively. Marisol Jimenez Loayza was admitted to the California Bar in 2017 and has focused on employment law, handling discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage, class action, and PAGA matters. She has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star every year from 2021 to 2026. Francisco A. Loayza began his career defending employers at the San Diego firm Higgs Fletcher & Mack before moving to the plaintiff side, and he has been a Rising Star from 2023 to 2026. That employer-side start gives him a working knowledge of how defense counsel evaluate and defend discrimination claims.
The firm limits its caseload so each client receives individual attention and takes a trial-focused approach, appearing in San Diego County Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and before the CRD and EEOC. Both partners are fluent in English and Spanish, which matters for workers who are more comfortable describing sensitive workplace events in Spanish. Consultations are free.
3. Sanford Heisler Sharp
- Headquarters: 655 West Broadway, Suite 1700, San Diego, CA 92101 (national firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Nashville, and Baltimore)
- Phone: 619-577-4253
- Website: sanfordheisler.com
- Practice Areas: Pregnancy, race, age, gender, LGBTQ, religious, and accent discrimination, wrongful termination, wage and hour class and collective actions
- Firm Size: Large national plaintiff-side firm
- Practice Area Page: San Diego Discrimination Lawyers
Sanford Heisler Sharp’s San Diego office brings a national employee-rights firm to local discrimination cases. The firm reports obtaining the largest jury verdict in U.S. history in an employment discrimination case, a $253 million award in a gender discrimination matter against a pharmaceutical company that benefited more than 7,000 women. In San Diego, it won a verdict of more than $3.3 million for women’s basketball coach Beth Burns, who was terminated by San Diego State University after raising gender equity complaints under Title IX.
The firm’s San Diego discrimination page covers pregnancy, race, age, gender, LGBTQ, religious, and accent-based claims, and its recognitions include Benchmark Litigation’s Labor and Employment Firm of the Year and National Law Journal Elite Trial Lawyers. Because its showcase results are class-scale and high-profile, a worker with a smaller individual claim may find a local boutique a more natural fit, while employees with systemic or high-value claims may value the firm’s resources.
4. Haeggquist & Eck, LLP
- Attorney/Key Figure: Alreen Haeggquist, Founder and Managing Partner
- Headquarters: 225 Broadway, Suite 2050, San Diego, CA 92101
- Phone: 619-342-8000
- Website: haelaw.com
- Practice Areas: Employment discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, equal pay, wage theft, class actions, and representation of sexual assault survivors
- Firm Size: Boutique with a team of partners and associates, founded in 2008
- Social Profiles: Avvo and Martindale-Hubbell profiles available
Alreen Haeggquist founded Haeggquist & Eck in 2008 and has been selected to Super Lawyers every year from 2016 to 2026. She earned her law degree at California Western School of Law in 2002, started her career at a large plaintiff-side class action firm, and has pursued claims against major employers including Kaiser Permanente, Sharp HealthCare, and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.
The firm describes itself as a women-owned practice that takes a trauma-informed approach to discrimination and harassment cases, and it reports a disability discrimination jury verdict against Kaiser Permanente that was recognized among California’s Top 50 Employment Verdicts. It carries a 4.9 average across 72 reviews on Lawyers.com. Compared with the national firms on this list, its bench is smaller, which suits individual claims and mid-size cases more than the very largest multi-plaintiff matters.
5. Kased Law Group
- Attorney/Key Figure: Nathan Kased, Managing Partner
- Headquarters: 2535 Kettner Boulevard, Suite 2A2, San Diego, CA 92101
- Phone: (619) 333-6373
- Website: kasedlegal.com
- Practice Areas: Wage and overtime claims, workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, retaliation, employee misclassification, severance agreement review
- Firm Size: Boutique with a small team of attorneys, serving employees since 2007
Nathan Kased was admitted to the California Bar in 2007, the same year the firm began representing California workers, and has built a reputation as one of San Diego’s leading plaintiff-side wage and hour lawyers. Beyond wage claims, he handles discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, and severance reviews for employees. The firm cites an AV Preeminent peer rating, Super Lawyers recognition in labor and employment, and Avvo’s top rating of 10, and Nathan Kased holds a 4.9 across 61 reviews aggregated by Avvo and Lawyers.com.
Kased Law Group is a good option for workers whose discrimination claim sits alongside unpaid overtime, misclassification, or a severance negotiation. Its reputation rests heavily on wage and hour work, so discrimination-only claimants may want to ask how many such cases the team has taken to resolution.
6. Walker Law
- Attorney/Key Figure: Justin O. Walker, Founder
- Headquarters: 5575 Lake Park Way, Suite 111, La Mesa, CA 91942
- Phone: (619) 839-9978
- Website: walkerlawsd.com
- Practice Areas: Workplace discrimination (age, disability, gender, LGBT, pregnancy, race, religion), harassment, hostile work environment, retaliation, whistleblower claims, wrongful termination, unpaid wages, plus personal injury and insurance bad faith
- Firm Size: Boutique
- Practice Area Page: San Diego Workplace Harassment Attorney
- Social Profiles: Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Yelp
Justin Walker founded Walker Law to represent employees and injured people in San Diego, and he handles employment matters ranging from discrimination and harassment to civil rights violations. The firm’s results page lists an $850,000 settlement in a harassment and wrongful termination case and a $2 million settlement in a wrongful termination case.
Walker Law’s employment section is organized by claim type, with separate pages for age, disability, gender, LGBT, pregnancy, racial, and religious discrimination, and the site explains direct and circumstantial evidence, pretext, and recoverable damages in detail. The firm is based in La Mesa, east of downtown, which can be convenient for East County clients. Personal injury and insurance bad faith work run alongside employment law, so employment is one of three main practice areas rather than the sole focus.
7. Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP
- Attorney/Key Figure: Norm Blumenthal, Kyle Nordrehaug, AJ Bhowmik, and Nicholas De Blouw, Partners
- Headquarters: 2255 Calle Clara, San Diego (La Jolla), CA 92037 (additional offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Las Vegas)
- Phone: (858) 367-9913
- Website: bamlawca.com
- Practice Areas: Wage and hour, class actions, wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, overtime, unpaid wages, employee benefits
- Firm Size: Large multi-office employee-side firm
- Practice Area Page: Discrimination Overview
- Social Profiles: X
Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw is based in San Diego and represents employees exclusively, with offices across California and in Las Vegas. The firm states that it has obtained more than $1.3 billion in total awards for clients, much of it through wage and hour class actions, and it offers free consultations and handles eligible cases on a no-win, no-fee basis.
Its discrimination practice covers wrongful termination, retaliation, and harassment alongside its larger wage and hour docket. As a large multi-office firm centered on class litigation, individual discrimination clients may find that the day-to-day contact varies by case, so it is worth asking who the lead attorney on a single-plaintiff matter will be.
8. Damiani Law Group APC
- Attorney/Key Figure: Lisa J. Damiani, Founder and Principal Attorney
- Headquarters: 1059 Tenth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101
- Phone: (619) 239-0170
- Website: damianilawgroup.com
- Practice Areas: Employment law (workplace discrimination, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, severance and lay-off matters) and criminal defense
- Firm Size: Solo-led boutique, established in 2000
Lisa J. Damiani has practiced in California since 1988 and founded Damiani Law Group in 2000. Before opening her own firm, she was Of Counsel at McKenna and Cuneo from 1993 to 2000, and she has been selected to Super Lawyers every year from 2010 to 2026. San Diego Magazine has named her to its top lawyers lists in criminal law, employment law, and business law, and she carries an AV peer rating.
Her trial background in both civil and criminal courts gives her experience with witness examination and courtroom strategy that transfers to discrimination and wrongful termination cases. The firm also advises employers on terminations, severance agreements, and layoffs and handles criminal defense matters, so it is not an employee-only practice, and clients who want a firm that works solely on the employee side should keep that in mind.
9. The Gould Firm
- Attorney/Key Figure: Evan A. Gould, Principal
- Headquarters: 11440 West Bernardo Court, Suite 300, San Diego, CA 92127
- Phone: 619-291-9858
- Website: gouldfirm.com
- Practice Areas: Employment law (discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, wage and hour) and serious personal injury
- Firm Size: Solo practice with support staff
Evan Gould was admitted to the California Bar in 1988 and has run The Gould Firm since 2005, concentrating on employment litigation and serious injury cases. He represents employees who range from hourly workers to senior executives, handling discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, and wage claims, and he is a member of the San Diego Superior Court’s civil mediation panel.
Client feedback is a clear strength: Evan Gould holds a 5.0 rating across 61 client reviews on Avvo, with clients frequently citing responsiveness and clear communication. As a one-attorney firm there is no bench of colleagues on the case, and his work is split between employment and injury matters, which makes it a fit for clients who want one lawyer in direct charge of their file.
10. Law Offices of David A. Kaufman, APC
- Attorney/Key Figure: David A. Kaufman, Attorney and CEO
- Headquarters: 225 Broadway, Suite 2100, San Diego, CA 92101 (additional office at 7752 Fay Avenue, Suite G, La Jolla, CA 92037)
- Phone: 619-830-4328
- Website: lawofficesofdavidkaufman.com
- Practice Areas: Employment litigation (discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination), personal injury, insurance bad faith, general civil litigation
- Firm Size: Solo-led boutique, incorporated as an APC in 2019
David Kaufman’s firm focuses its employment work on discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination claims, alongside personal injury and, since 2019, insurance bad faith litigation. He started his career in construction and contract legal services, which gives him a background in document-heavy disputes that carries over to employment cases built on emails, performance reviews, and personnel records.
The firm maintains offices in downtown San Diego and La Jolla. Employment is roughly a quarter of its practice, with personal injury the larger share, so workers whose main concern is a discrimination claim should confirm how the firm approaches the early evidence and agency filing steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the deadline to file a workplace discrimination claim in California?
Under FEHA, you generally have three years from the discriminatory act to file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, a window that was extended from one year by AB 9 in 2020. Once the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice, you generally have one year to file a lawsuit in court. Federal claims through the EEOC follow different timelines, including a 90-day window to sue after an EEOC right-to-sue letter. Firms such as Jimenez Loayza handle matters before both the CRD and the EEOC.
Which employers are covered by California’s anti-discrimination law?
FEHA generally applies to employers with five or more employees, which is broader than the 15-employee threshold under federal laws such as Title VII and the ADA. California also protects more characteristics than federal law, including medical condition, gender identity and expression, and military or veteran status, and age protection begins at 40. Walker Law’s discrimination pages set out the federal and California protected classes side by side.
What compensation can I recover in a San Diego discrimination case?
Depending on the facts, remedies can include back pay, front pay, lost benefits, emotional distress damages, punitive damages where an employer acted with malice or oppression, reinstatement, and attorney’s fees. The Law Office of Frank S. Clowney III explains how lost wages and emotional harm are weighed in settlement negotiations. Large outcomes do occur: Sanford Heisler Sharp reports a $253 million verdict in a gender discrimination class case, though individual claims typically resolve for far less.
How much does a workplace discrimination lawyer cost?
Many San Diego employee-side firms offer a free first consultation, and several work on a contingency basis, meaning legal fees are paid from the recovery rather than upfront. Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw states that it represents eligible employees on a no-win, no-fee basis, and firms including Jimenez Loayza and Kased Law Group advertise free consultations. Ask each firm to explain its fee agreement and how costs are handled before signing.
Should I hire a large national firm, a boutique, or a solo attorney?
It depends on the claim. A national firm like Sanford Heisler Sharp suits high-value or systemic cases, a boutique such as Haeggquist & Eck combines deep employment experience with a dedicated team, and a solo attorney like Evan Gould or Lisa Damiani offers direct, one-on-one access. Whichever you choose, ask who will actually handle your file and how many discrimination cases the firm has taken to trial or arbitration.
What should I do first if I think I am being discriminated against at work?
Start by documenting each incident with dates, times, locations, and witnesses, and keep copies of performance reviews, emails, and messages. Report the conduct to your employer in writing if you feel safe doing so, since retaliation for complaining is itself unlawful. You can then file with the CRD or EEOC, and a consultation with an employment lawyer before signing any severance or release agreement is a common next step. Kased Law Group, for example, regularly reviews severance agreements for employees.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction about your specific situation.10 Best SEO Agencies for Lawyers & Law Firms10 Best SEO Agencies for Lawyers & Law Firms
