Elizabeth L. Lyons, Esq.

Elizabeth Lyons — The Attorney Who Knows the System from the Inside

Elizabeth L. Lyons did not learn about employment discrimination from textbooks. She learned it by investigating hundreds of real discrimination cases for the United States government during 9 years as an official investigator at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

When she joined Liberation Law Group in October 2020, she brought something no other employment attorney in San Francisco can offer: she knows exactly how the government thinks when it investigates discrimination, what evidence convinces federal investigators, and every tactic employers use to try to defend themselves.

That insider knowledge cannot be learned in a classroom. It is earned over nearly a decade of investigating cases on the front lines — and now it works entirely on the worker's side.

What 9 Years at the EEOC Taught Her

Specialties of Attorney Elizabeth Lyons

Employment Discrimination

As a former EEOC investigator, Elizabeth Lyons is exceptionally effective in discrimination cases because she knows the federal process from the inside. She represents workers in cases involving:

• Race and national origin discrimination — including racist or ethnic comments directed at Latino workers
• Gender and pregnancy discrimination — unequal treatment and exclusion from opportunities
• Age discrimination against older workers
• Disability and medical condition discrimination
• Religious discrimination
• Equal pay violations — when the same role receives different pay based on gender or race

Sexual Harassment and Racial Harassment

After 9 years of investigating harassment cases for the federal government, Elizabeth Lyons developed a unique ability to identify harassment patterns that others might miss. She represents workers facing:

• Inappropriate touching or unwanted physical contact by supervisors
• Sexual or demeaning comments directed at employees
• Hostile work environment based on gender or race
• Retaliation for rejecting sexual advances

Illegal Workplace Retaliation

Elizabeth Lyons understands how employers retaliate better than almost any other attorney in California — because she spent years investigating exactly those situations for the federal agency charged with enforcing anti-retaliation law. She represents workers facing:

• Termination after reporting discrimination or harassment
• Schedule changes or hour reductions as punishment
• Unjustified negative performance evaluations following a formal complaint
• Hostile work environment created after a worker makes a claim

An Extraordinary Path to the Bar

While working full time as an EEOC investigator during the day, Elizabeth Lyons attended the evening program at the University of San Francisco School of Law. For years she balanced:

• Investigating federal discrimination cases during the day
• Studying employment law in night classes
• Leading the student employment law organization as President

She graduated cum laude and earned two of her law school's most prestigious awards: the ABA-Bloomberg BNA Award for Excellence in Employment Law and the CALI Award for Excellence in Legal Research. That level of commitment is not coincidental — it reflects a genuine passion for defending workers' rights that began long before she passed the bar.

Practice Areas

When to Contact Elizabeth Lyons

Call immediately if:

• You are experiencing discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, or religion
• You are a victim of sexual or racial harassment at work
• You were punished for filing a discrimination complaint
• Your employer is violating federal or state equal employment opportunity laws
• You need to file a charge with the EEOC or California's Civil Rights Department
• You were terminated after rejecting sexual advances or reporting harassment

Her internal EEOC experience can be the difference between winning and losing your case.

See also: Arlo Uriarte, Esq. — Managing Attorney · Gonzalo Quezada, Esq. · Workplace Discrimination · Sexual Harassment