Felicia Medina

About Felicia

Felicia Medina (she/her) is nationally acclaimed plaintiff side attorney, having secured some of the largest class and individual settlements in employment discrimination cases on record. With a passion to address systemic oppression by holding powerful corporations and interests accountable, Felicia specializes in employment discrimination, equal pay, sexual harassment, wage and hour, wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation cases.

She has successfully represented clients from all walks of life, including C-Suite executives, working mothers and parents, scientists and engineers, and sales employees. Her expertise extends to a variety of industries, including STEM, entertainment, legal services, pharmaceuticals, biotech, finance, energy, and transportation.

Felicia has led some of the country’s most significant employment class actions. Most recently, she settled race discrimination class actions, one on a pre-suit basis, against Kaiser for a combined $18.9 million settlement, a pregnancy discrimination class action in the aviation industry, and two pay and promotion gender discrimination class actions against Western Digital and Qualcomm, Inc. on behalf of women tech employees. She also brought and resolved a novel class action claim against AC Transit for failing to accommodate lactating bus drivers and separately had an educational institution publicly apologize for its anti-Blackness.

In her early years as a plaintiff lawyer, Felicia quickly stood out in the top of the field by helping secure the largest employment gender discrimination verdict in U.S. history in Velez v. Novartis. The presiding federal judge described the case as having been “brilliantly tried.” After the seven-week trial and historic $250 million verdict, Felicia and her prior firm obtained a court-approved settlement of $175 million on behalf of 6,000 women with pay, promotion, and caregiver claims.

After the Novartis trial, Felicia quickly rose through the ranks from Associate to Managing Partner at a prior firm, becoming one of the few queer women of color in a leadership position in a national law firm. After becoming a partner, Felicia secured an $8.2 million gender discrimination class action settlement with Daiichi Sankyo, the first case to be conditionally certified under the Equal Pay Act in the Ninth Circuit and settled several significant multi-party and individual pre-suit matters. She has also won appeals in the Sixth Circuit and at the California Supreme Court.

Felicia regularly speaks on impact litigation strategy, race and gender justice, sexual harassment, and equal pay issues. She has been honored as a 2018 San Francisco Business Times OUTstanding Voices recipient; 2017 Daily Journal Leading Labor and Employment Attorneys in California; a 2016 National LGBT Bar Association – Best LGBT Lawyer Under 40; a 2015 National Diversity Council Most Powerful/Influential Woman; and a Law360 2014 Minority Power Broker.

Medina is currently on the Board of Directors for FAIR and the Chicana Latina Foundation, helping to raise money for student scholarships. She is the former co-chair of the National Center of Lesbian Rights (NLCR).

Prior to entering plaintiff side work, Medina graduated from Yale Law School in 2006 and then joined Morrison & Foerster LLP.