Dolores Y. Leal

Before joining the firm in 1991, Ms. Leal spent several years with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she handled complex matters involving employment discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, age, and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and the Equal Pay Act. In 1988, she tried her first discrimination case—alleging age and sex discrimination—alongside another EEOC attorney. The jury returned a landmark verdict, awarding $45 million in damages to 37 former employees of the Hilton Casinos.

During her tenure at the EEOC, Ms. Leal held multiple positions, including investigator, and ultimately served as a Senior Trial Attorney. In that role, she tried numerous Title VII and ADEA cases, including matters involving English-only workplace policies, national origin discrimination, gender discrimination and harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and age discrimination.

Since joining Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, Ms. Leal has tried and litigated numerous discrimination and wrongful termination cases. One of her most notable victories was Tylo v. Spelling Entertainment Group, Inc., in which she represented actress Hunter Tylo in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit. The jury awarded Ms. Tylo $4,894,601 in damages.

Equally significant was Ms. Leal’s success before trial in Hunter Tylo v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 55 Cal. App. 4th 1379, 64 Cal. Rptr. 2d 731 (1997). In that matter, Ms. Leal successfully challenged a trial court order permitting invasive discovery into Ms. Tylo’s private life. The Court of Appeal stayed and ultimately reversed the order, making clear that employers may not engage in “fishing expeditions” during discovery. This decision has since served as an important safeguard for employees and plaintiff-side employment attorneys asserting workplace rights.

Recently, Ms. Leal, along with Partner Olivia Flechsig, won a $4 million unanimous jury verdict in federal court against Chevron USA on behalf of a client whose job offer was rescinded because of his disability. They also won him an additional $1.67 million in attorneys’ fees and costs post-trial. This result has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Verdicts in California in 2025.

Ms. Leal is the author of Litigating Sexual Harassment and Sex Discrimination Cases, published by James Publishing, and has written numerous articles on employment law. She is a frequent speaker before attorney organizations and the EEOC, and taught torts, employment discrimination, and critical studies at People’s College of Law.

Ms. Leal has served in leadership roles on several boards, including the Executive Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) from 1995 through 2009, where she also served as Board Chair. She served on the board of Legal Aid at Work from July 2019 through December 2022 and has been a board member of the ACLU of Southern California Foundation since March 2018.

In 2008, Ms. Leal was nominated and inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, an honor bestowed by the organization’s Governors to recognize leading plaintiff, defense, and academic lawyers nationwide in the field of labor and employment law.

Since 2004, Ms. Leal has been named one of Southern California’s “Super Lawyers” by Los Angeles Magazine for 21 consecutive years. She has also been recognized as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Southern California in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2023, and 2024, and has been selected as one of The Best Lawyers in America from 2006 to the present. Ms. Leal has consistently received an “AV” rating—the highest possible—from Martindale-Hubbell, as well as a 10.0 rating from AVVO.