vni@publicjustice.net

Victoria W. Ni is a Senior Attorney in the Oakland, CA office of Public Justice. Since she joined the firm in 2000, Vicky has worked on a variety of cases brought to protect consumers’ and victims’ rights, rights of the disabled, free speech, and equal opportunity for women in athletics and in the workplace. Her litigation work includes:

• Representation of a class of over 3,000 female employees in a lawsuit alleging that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deprived women of equal pay and promotional opportunities. After five years of contentious litigation, the Lab agreeing to pay over $10.6 million to class members and to overhaul its performance management system. 
  
• Representation of hundreds of peaceful protesters in a class action alleging First and Fourth Amendment violations stemming from the protesters’ arrests during the 1999 WTO Convention in Seattle, Washington. After a jury found the City of Seattle liable for violating the Fourth Amendment, the City agreed to pay $1 million to settle the lawsuit. 
  
• Representation of a putative class of California consumers with mobility disabilities who sued Hotels.com for discrimination. As part of a settlement, Hotels.com and its parent company, Expedia.com, agreed to revise their websites and reservation systems so that disabled travelers are able to search for and reserve hotel rooms with the accessibility features they need.
  
• Representation of a 14-year-old girl in a lawsuit alleging discrimination because she was denied the opportunity to participate in the boys’ high school baseball program. The lawsuit prompted the Indiana High School Athletic Association to eliminate a state-wide rule prohibiting girls from participating in high school baseball if their schools offered softball. 

Vicky graduated summa cum laude from Boston University in 1992, and was a cum laude graduate from New York University School of Law in 1995. After clerking on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, she was an associate at two New York law firms, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol (which later became part of Ropes & Gray). While in private practice, Vicky handled complex commercial litigation matters as well as public interest cases regarding the constitutionality of school voucher programs and the use of statistical sampling in the decennial census.