Gerald Gilliard is a seasoned litigator with over seventeen years of federal and state court and administrative agency experience, representing companies, executives, management, and employees, on all sides in employment law disputes. Mr. Gilliard enjoys deep experience from representing clients against the federal government, and also from his time defending the U.S. Department of the Air Force. Mr. Gilliard was formerly an in-house counsel to a 600,000-member labor union.
Mr. Gilliard’s subject matter expertise includes employment litigation before federal courts, the EEOC, the MSPB, and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, and counseling in the areas of employment and labor relations law. Litigation victories for Mr. Gilliard’s clients include;
the 2020 order granting his corporate client’s motion to dismiss a breach of employment contract lawsuit
a 2017 victory following a three-day federal sector EEOC discrimination hearing
the 2014 execution of a sizable private litigation settlement of an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint for a client’s estate following the client’s untimely death
the 2013 reinstatement of a federal police officer fired for serving as a witness in a fellow officer’s EEOC case
orchestrating the 2010 dismissal of an executive who falsified payroll records
the 2008 reinstatement of two African-American men barred from work for refusing to cut or untie their hair braids
the successful 2009 defense of the security clearance of a federal security officer with a dual U.S.-Jordan citizenship, and
the successful 2008 reinstatement with back pay for an airport security employee fired for allegedly sleeping on post in 2008.
From his time at the Volkswagen Group, a Global Fortune 20 automaker and technology company with over $250 billion in annual revenues worldwide, Mr. Gilliard developed high-value business expertise in the human capital aspects of multimillion dollar corporate acquisitions, such as the transition of Volkswagen Automotive Cloud to CARIAD, Inc. Mr. Gilliard’s experience with state and federal laws and regulations enabled him to lead several human resources directors in seamlessly changing Volkswagen’s internal processes to comply with federal and state laws like California’s pay transparency law, SB1162. His fundamental understanding as an engineer, coupled with his ability to gain the trust and buy-in of skeptical managers, has delivered powerful results during his career with the Volkswagen Group.
In addition to his civil litigation advocacy and his work at the Volkswagen Group, Mr. Gilliard is passionate about human rights, and in 2014 joined the board of The Rebecca Project for Justice, an organization dedicated to freeing women and girls from slavery in the United States and in Africa. His work as a board member involved the Rebecca Project’s opposition to population control policies, specifically his planning of litigation against a major pharmaceutical for its clinical trials of a contraceptive drug on African women and girls without their knowledge of, or consent to, medical experimentation. Sadly, due to a lack of funding, this litigation did not go forward, and this drug became available in the United States in 2020.
Mr. Gilliard holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in applied science (mechanical engineering concentration) from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Gilliard also served on the Steering Committee of the D.C. Bar Labor and Employment Law Section in 2011.
