We are pleased to announce that counsel Claire-Lise Kutlay has been named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2026 list of the Leaders of Influence: Labor and Employment Attorneys.
Claire-Lise is a leading California public-sector litigator with a strong record of success in high-stakes employment and constitutional law matters involving local governments and senior public officials. She is also routinely retained by companies and high-level executives to serve as lead counsel in complex disputes, handling matters through trial and arbitration. Her experience spans employment law, constitutional litigation, business torts, defamation, fraud, contracts, real estate, partnership disputes, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Over the past two years, Claire-Lise has successfully defended municipalities, counties, elected officials, and senior executives against claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, defamation, wrongful termination, and constitutional violations. Most notably, she secured the complete dismissal of all claims in the widely publicized case of Melanie McDade-Dickens v. City of Inglewood. Following extensive litigation in which the court sanctioned the plaintiff for committing perjury and destroying critical evidence, Claire-Lise obtained summary judgment dismissing all claims against the City of Inglewood and Mayor James T. Butts, Jr., fully disposing of the action.
She also obtained decisive victories for Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lewin in multiple politically sensitive lawsuits. In Tiffiny Blacknell v. County of Los Angeles, Claire-Lise won an anti-SLAPP motion on First Amendment grounds, leading to a fee award and the plaintiff’s dismissal of Lewin with prejudice. In Brock Lunsford v. County of Los Angeles, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed all claims against Lewin before Claire-Lise’s anti-SLAPP motion was decided.
Claire-Lise’s prior accomplishments include serving as lead counsel for a banking executive wrongfully terminated after reporting potential federal banking regulation violations, resolving the matter during arbitration; securing dismissal for lack of federal jurisdiction in a high-profile age and disability discrimination suit against a city (later negotiating a cost-of-defense settlement after refiling in state court); obtaining a favorable settlement and reinstatement for an Investigative Sergeant in a retaliation and sexual harassment case against a county; and successfully defending a celebrity real estate professional in a complex trade secrets, defamation, contract, and wage-hour matter after replacing prior counsel.
Additional notable representations include negotiating highly favorable settlements for an attorney whistleblower in a school district wrongful termination case involving illegal contracts, and for a plaintiff constructively terminated after reporting RESPA violations in the title insurance industry; serving as one of the lead attorneys in a “groundbreaking” gender discrimination lawsuit against an AmLaw 100 firm, defeating multiple dispositive motions; and winning a seven-figure jury verdict plus a multi-million-dollar fee award as lead trial associate in a whistleblower retaliation case—one of California’s largest single-plaintiff verdicts of its kind.