Biography

Karla Gilbride is the Cartwright-Baron Senior Attorney at Public Justice, working out of its Washington, DC office, where she specializes in litigating challenges to the use of pre-dispute, mandatory arbitration provisions in contracts with employees and consumers. Karla has successfully briefed and/or argued such cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and eleventh Circuits, as well as before state appellate courts in New Jersey and Maryland. She has also testified on the topic of pre-dispute arbitration clauses before the state legislatures of California and New York.

In addition to her work on mandatory arbitration, Karla litigates cases on behalf of low-wage workers and against predatory lending schemes. Before coming to Public Justice in 2014, she pursued employment discrimination and wage and hour cases at Mehri & Skalet PLLC in Washington, DC and class actions on behalf of people with disabilities at Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley, CA. She graduated from Georgetown Law School in 2007 and clerked for Judge Ronald Gould on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.