Gerald L. Gilliard is the founder and principal counsel of The Law Office of Gerald L. Gilliard, Esq., LLC, a law firm that primarily represents plaintiffs in employment discrimination suits, civil rights actions, whistleblower cases, False Claims Act qui tam actions, security clearance revocations, suits over failure to accommodate under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, and cases involving similarly unlawful actions by employers.
Mr. Gilliard began his employment law career by providing nationwide representation of Federal employees facing workplace discrimination and unwarranted adverse actions as Staff Counsel for a 600,000-member strong Federal labor union. Mr. Gilliard has since served as counsel to the employment law and government contracts departments of two prominent D.C. law firms, and most recently, as the founder of a plaintiff-side law firm protecting and defending employees against discrimination and adverse actions.
Mr. Gilliard’s successful legal representation includes procurement of an undisclosed monetary settlement of an OFCCP complaint filed against a government contractor by two former employees, the reinstatement of a Federal police officer fired for testifying on behalf of a colleague's EEOC investigation, reinstatement of two African-American male Federal officers terminated for wearing hair braids despite their compliance with the Agency’s uniform policy, successful maintenance of the security clearance of a Federal officer in the face of a threatened revocation of security clearance due to his dual American-Jordanian citizenship, back pay for and reinstatement of a Federal officer fired for allegedly falling asleep on post, reinstatement of Federal employee removed for airing controversial political views at work, securing both an undisclosed monetary settlement and agency cooperation in the disability
service retirement application of an African-American female veteran removed from Federal service in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and orchestrating the dismissal of an agency executive guilty of harassing and suborning perjury of employees following an internal investigation into her alleged falsification of payroll records.
Mr. Gilliard was counsel in the Whistleblower Protection Act representation of two GS-15 Army civilian executives before the MSPB and Office of Special Counsel.
Mr. Gilliard practiced with Grayson & Kubli, P.C., the only law firm in America to successfully prosecute companies who profited illegally from the war in Iraq and postwar reconstruction, per the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729–3733.
Mr. Gilliard’s subject matter expertise includes Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) practice, WPA practice before the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, employment and labor relations law, adverse and performance based actions, alleged discrimination and whistleblower reprisal, security clearance revocations, competitive and non-competitive promotions, suitability determinations, background investigations, probationary periods, pay and benefits, worker's compensation, hours of duty and time and attendance, performance assessment and deficiencies, and disability retirement, and removal, standards of conduct, and investigations.
The son of a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant and union activist, Mr. Gilliard graduated with honors from New York’s Stuyvesant High School in 1987. He matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania with the help of scholarships awarded by the U.S. Air Force and AFSCME SSEU Local 371. Mr. Gilliard went on to earn a juris doctor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he served on the Georgetown Journal of International Law. While in law school, Mr. Gilliard completed internships with the Hon. Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and with U.S. Congressman James Clyburn. As a procurement Law Clerk for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the results of his legal research helped Agency attorneys persuade the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals to grant CACI International Incorporated only nominal damages, in a case in which the Government had already been deemed in breach of a $91 million contract. Mr. Gilliard is a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and father of two.
Gerald Gilliard is a licensed attorney in Virginia and the District of Columbia, and is a member of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Mr. Gilliard is a past board member of the D.C. Bar Labor and Employment Law Steering Committee and is a current member of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, an affiliate of the National Employment Law Association.
Areas of Practice:
- Federal Sector Discrimination Law
- Federal Sector Employment law
- Federal Procurement Law
- Security Clearance Revocations
- Internal Agency Investigations
- Family and Medical Leave
- Whistleblower/Qui Tam
- U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board - Appeals and Petitions for Review
- U.S. Office of Special Counsel - Complaints concerning Prohibited Personnel Practices
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – Complaints of Discrimination
- U.S. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs – Complaints of Discrimination by Government Contractors
- Inspector General Complaints
Bar Admissions:
- Virginia, 2005
- District of Columbia, 2006
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 2007
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 2009
- U.S. District Court and Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, 2010
Professional Associations and Memberships:
- District of Columbia Bar (Labor and Employment Law Steering Committee, 2010-2011)
- Virginia State Bar
- American Bar Association, Member, Labor and Employment Law Section
- Federal Bar Association, Member, Government Contracts Section, and Labor and Employment Law Section
- University of Pennsylvania Alumni Association
Employment:
- Of Counsel, Tully Rinckey PLLC
- Of Counsel and Co-Chair, Government Contract Law Section, Perry, Krumsiek & Jack, LLP
- Counsel, American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO
- Associate, Grayson & Kubli, P.C.
Education:
- Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., J.D.
- South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, S.C., M.A.T.
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, B.A.S.