Tamara S. Freeze

Tamara S. Freeze is the firm’s lead trial attorney and a founding shareholder of Workplace Justice Advocates, Professional Law Corporation, where she exclusively represents employees in cases involving whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment, disability accommodation, unpaid wages, employment litigation, and appeals.

After earning her undergraduate degree from UCLA, Ms. Freeze attended the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she focused on employment law and litigation and worked as a summer associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP. Following graduation, she practiced at the prominent employment defense firms Littler Mendelson, P.C. and Bryan Cave, LLP. In 2009, Ms. Freeze opened her own practice, dedicated exclusively to employee rights.

Recognition

The Daily Journal named Ms. Freeze to its list of the Top 75 Labor and Employment Attorneys in 2017, 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025—a distinction reserved for the most exceptional employment lawyers in California. She has been recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine every year since 2012, an honor extended to no more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state. She has also been named one of the Top 50 Up-and-Coming Women Lawyers in Southern California and one of the Top 100 Up-and-Coming Southern California Lawyers by Super Lawyers Magazine, and has been featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and on a variety of radio stations and media outlets.

Notable Verdicts

In her very first jury trial, Ms. Freeze obtained a $1,377,000 verdict for her client Huron Mayo in a complex disability discrimination, retaliation, and CFRA case, prevailing on all five causes of action against the Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles.

In June 2015, she secured a $550,000 jury verdict on behalf of a disabled school custodian—one of the largest discrimination verdicts in San Bernardino County that year.

In April 2017, Ms. Freeze obtained a historic $25.1 million whistleblower jury verdict for her client Steven Babyak, who was unlawfully terminated after reporting illegal kickbacks and FDA policy violations to upper management. The unanimous verdict is believed to be one of the largest single-plaintiff whistleblower awards in California legal history. She was named a 2017 CAALA Trial Attorney of the Year Finalist for her work on the case.

In November 2023, Ms. Freeze and her co-counsel obtained a $112,000 Equal Pay Act verdict for a female database administrator who was paid less than her male colleagues. Over five years of litigation, Ms. Freeze mastered highly technical computer science concepts to prove that her client performed substantially similar work to that of her male counterparts. The court awarded more than $1 million in attorneys’ fees and costs.

In March 2024, she obtained a unanimous $800,000 whistleblower retaliation verdict on behalf of a school safety officer wrongfully terminated by Redlands Unified School District. The court awarded Workplace Justice Advocates nearly $1 million in attorneys’ fees and costs.

In November 2024, Ms. Freeze secured a $2,248,290 whistleblower retaliation verdict for a Chief Financial Officer wrongfully terminated by a Chinese corporation represented by a large, well-known Los Angeles “Big Law” firm. The jury awarded the CFO full damages on his breach of contract claim as well as compensatory and punitive damages. The court subsequently awarded more than $2.6 million in attorneys’ fees and costs, bringing the total judgment, with interest, to $5.5 million. The defendant had declined a $500,000 section 998 offer earlier in the litigation.

In May 2025, Ms. Freeze obtained a historic $6,500,000 defamation verdict on behalf of a former Acting President who was fired by a cannabis company and its then-CEO, Dan Bilzerian (the “King of Instagram”), after refusing to approve Bilzerian’s extravagant personal expenses. Those expenses included a $50,000 bed frame, a rock climbing wall, a paintball field, opulent home furnishings, a $70,000 vault to house Bilzerian’s $3 million gun collection, numerous exotic international trips, and the rental of Sir Richard Branson’s private island. After the lawsuit was filed, Bilzerian made a defamatory statement to TMZ claiming the client had been fired for incompetence and negligence. The jury found unanimously against Bilzerian, and 11–1 against his company Ignite, on the defamation claim. Ms. Freeze also obtained an appellate victory in this case on an anti-SLAPP issue.

Outside the Practice

Ms. Freeze holds a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and enjoys a good chess game. She volunteers as a judge and scoring attorney for the CRF Moot Court and UCI mock trial competitions, and serves as a mock trial coach at a local high school. She is also a member of the CELA Trial College Committee and serves as a trainer and presenter at the CELA Trial College each year, coaching student attorneys in voir dire, direct and cross examination, opening and closing statements, trial strategy, evidence presentation, witness selection, and trial technology.