Karla Gilbride
Deputy Director
Karla Gilbride joined Public Citizen in February 2025 as deputy director of the Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on access to justice, civil and workers’ rights, and corporate and government accountability. Before joining Public Citizen, she served as general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she led the agency’s litigation and amicus program to combat discrimination in the workplace. Prior to joining EEOC, Karla litigated access to justice, workers’ rights and consumer protection issues with Public Justice for nearly nine years, obtaining a victory for workers at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 and arguing many other cases in federal and state appellate courts. Before that she worked at Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley, California and at a plaintiffs’ labor and employment firm in Washington, DC.
Karla received her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College in 2002 and her J.D. from Georgetown Law in 2007. After graduation she clerked for Judge Ronald Gould on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Karla is licensed to practice law in California, DC and New York, before the U.S. Supreme Court, and before many federal appellate and district courts.