In 1989, Ms. Reilly received her Juris Doctorate from the University of San Diego School of Law where she was Law Review Comments Editor. Ms. Reilly joined the Orange County-based law firm, Murtaugh Miller Meyer & Nelson LLP, from 1990 to 1999, where she became a partner practicing employment law on behalf of employers and management, which included the performance of workplace investigations. In 1999, Ms. Reilly moved to San Diego and briefly left the private sector to serve for one year as the Research Attorney to United States District Judge Larry A. Burns of the United States District Court, Southern District of California. In that capacity, she researched and drafted proposed judicial opinions and orders and handled discovery conferences with counsel on such diversified issues as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act of 1871 (42 U.S.C. § 1983), Copyright/Patent Infringement, Social Security Appeals, and the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Ms. Reilly then left the Court and joined Trachtman Trachtman & Reilly LLP as a partner for three years heading up the firm’s employment law department. She then opened her own law practice in 2002. In Ms. Reilly’s representation of public entities, corporations, management, and complainant employees, she has handled all facets of employment litigation, including trial work. She has handled numerous administrative proceedings before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the California Labor Commission’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, and the City of Santa Ana Personnel Board (as its Legal Advisor).
For the last five years, Ms. Reilly has focused her practice on conducting EEO workplace investigations. Throughout her legal career, she has conducted over four hundred employment investigations for Municipalities, Districts, Authorities, the United States Postal Service (holding a “sensitive” security clearance by the Postal Inspector’s Office), and many private sector employers. Law firms in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties have recommended Ms. Reilly to their clients in need of an internal investigation. She has testified in deposition, arbitration, and trial concerning the findings of her investigations , all of which have been upheld by the tier of fact. Given her experience representing both sides of a case – management and employees – Ms. Reilly’s investigations have been found to be very objective, thoughtful, and thorough from the perspectives of all sides.
Ms. Reilly is the publisher of the blog WorkplaceInvestigationsBlog.com. In addition, Ms. Reilly has published articles on employment law and has authored a quarterly newsletter on federal and state employment issues. She is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association and its Labor and Employment Law section. She is a member of the State Bar of California, including its Labor and Employment Law section, and a member of the North County Personnel Association of San Diego.