Danielle Riddles, Founding Partner, Attorney
She Represents Employees Who Were Fired When They Needed Protection
Danielle represents employees who suffered from a disabling health condition, became pregnant, or who otherwise needed leave or other reasonable accommodation and who lost their job instead of receiving the support required by law.
Danielle helps California employees hold employers accountable when employers choose discrimination over compliance.
Danielle’s practice is deliberately narrow. She focuses on disability- and pregnancy-related employment cases because those cases are both legally complex and frequently mishandled by employers who underestimate the resulting exposure.
Why Clients Trust Her
Danielle’s path to the law was shaped early by exposure to disability and caregiving within her own family. That perspective followed her into law school, where she gravitated toward employment law, civil rights, and advocacy for vulnerable populations.
During law school, she:
- Represented low-income elderly clients—many with disabilities—through the Elder Law Clinic, handling cases start to finish under attorney supervision.
- Served as a crisis counselor for LGBTQ+ individuals.
- Participated in advocacy organizations focused on equality and access to justice.
- Earned distinction in oral advocacy and trial competitions.
That foundation matters.
A Seasoned and Highly Effective Advocate
Danielle is a career litigator.
She has handled cases from intake through verdict, including:
- Drafting and filing lawsuits and dispositive motions
- Managing discovery and depositions
- Defeating motions for summary judgment
- Successfully opposing removal and enforcing California forum rights
- Challenging and defeating arbitration agreements
- Trying cases to verdict and prevailing in arbitration
She understands procedure, evidentiary pressure points, and how employers’ “paper defenses” collapse when tested against actual timelines and testimony.
When necessary, she is prepared to take cases all the way and has the experience to back it up.
Danielle Can Identify Personally with Her Work
During her legal career, Danielle experienced pregnancy-related disabilities herself. Like many of her clients, she felt the quiet anxiety that comes with knowing how often pregnancy and disability trigger adverse employment actions.
That experience sharpened her focus—but it does not cloud her judgment.
Together with founding partner Perry Smith, Danielle co-founded sickandfired.com lawyers to concentrate on disability and pregnancy discrimination. They litigate these cases because employers keep violating the same rules and because meaningful change only happens when violations have consequences.
How She Practices
Danielle approaches each case with two goals:
- Secure full relief for the client, including accountability for unlawful conduct.
- Force institutional change by exposing illegal practices and weak compliance systems.
Danielle has previously:
- Negotiated changes to state agency policies that threatened employee rights
- Advanced creative, policy-based arguments to protect religious accommodation rights
- Prevailed in administrative and appellate proceedings involving Medicare and public benefits
Danielle’s advocacy is precise, disciplined, and grounded in statutory and evidentiary realities—not rhetoric.
Credentials
- J.D., University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law (with distinction)
- B.S., Business Administration – Management, California State University, Long Beach
- Judicial Extern, Judge Kevin R. Culhane (Ret.)
- Member, Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court
- Multiple academic awards in oral advocacy and trial competition
Outside the Office
Danielle and her husband have two young sons, two dogs, and a cat who refuses to follow rules. She makes the most of her time with her boys and enjoys the challenges parenting brings.
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Sickandfired.com lawyers
Enforcing the Rights of Employees Wrongfully Terminated for Health-related Reasons with a No-Recovery-No-Fee Approach
We have been called “true believers” countless times by lawyers for corporate employers because they can see that we truly believe in the need to enforce the law and in our client’s cases. They can see how much it bothers us when employees needing accommodation for health conditions are treated as defective and not worthy of their jobs.
Here’s what so many California employers fail to acknowledge: California allows them to earn their corporate profits in California and on the backs of California employees. But by cashing in on California and its people, employers agree to comply with California’s laws protecting employees. Put simply, cashing in requires compliance. Employers who fire employees in violation of California’s protective laws are cashing in without compliance. We think the corrupt cash should go to compensate wrongfully fired employees.
Employers sued for cashing in without compliance often accuse the employees who sue them of “just trying to cash in.” The gaslighting is real.
