Melissa L. Z. Lolotai

I am writing this review for the services that Melissa Lolotai provided to me from the Law Firm of John P. Mahoney, Esq. Attorney at Law. In December of 2019 I was terminated from the Census Bureau. I filed an EEOC complaint the next day and started the process on my behalf. After about nine mont...hs into the process, I started researching EEOC Law Firms and decided to go with a Washington, D.C. firm with a good reputation in dealing with Federal Agencies. I was assigned to Melissa Lolotai who work with me for the next two years as the process can be a long trip. I filed a complaint based on discrimination for age, race and retaliation. The challenge for Melissa was that I was an older white male. Currently an extremely difficult case to pursue. Melissa guided me through every step and explain what needed to be accomplished and the possible result, good or bad, in each situation. The adage of “you get what you paid for” was never truer with this Law Firm. Even though their costs were somewhat high, you got the best legal counsel related to EEOC issues. In my case there was no smoking gun, it was all heresy and his word against mine. Melissa was able to construct a winning case in an extremely professional manner that kept the Agency’s attorney on their back heels. She knew when being aggressive was needed and knew when to sit back and let the Administrative Judge take the lead. In the end, with her presentation, was able to convince the Administrative Judge to say to the Agency’s Attorney that I had been discriminated against for all three items (Age, Race and Retaliation). This cause the Agency to quickly ask for a settlement hearing and I received my pay for the next supervisory level and all the attorney fees that I had paid. In addition, I received some money for pain and suffering. I would highly recommend the Law Firm and personally ask for Melissa if I needed any EEOC help in dealing with any unfair Federal Agency practices that someone has encounter.

She never spoke to me and left me feeling like she had done the best she could on my behalf. She signed off on my case in an email that led me to ultimately waste two years time pursuing a claim with no chance of winning. Finally, I am not sure if she was right about attorney's fees being compensa...ted for had she been licensed in California. Which in my case totaled 20,000 dollars. She is not California licensed. I believe there was no malicious intent here. But I owe it to whoever comes after me to warn them of my experience as there is no other way they will find out ahead of time. I rated as average. You may therefore choose to ignore my review and proceed with her anyway. Hopefully, if you do, she has learned from her mistakes in my case and will do a good job for you.