Sally J. Abrahamson lives and breathes employment law, and zealously advocates for all her clients.
Sally joined Werman Salas as a partner in 2020 and is based in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Washington, D.C., New York and Texas (inactive) bars. Throughout her career, Sally has recovered over $100 million dollars for workers and has litigated and settled cutting edge cases. Sally is nationally recognized as an aggressive litigator, who can also work effectively with the other side when a deal can be made.
Notably, Sally has litigated some of the biggest cases in the country against national chain restaurants and recovered tens of millions of dollars for tipped workers. She litigates a wide-range of wage-and-hour cases on behalf of service employees, technicians, and sales employees (among others). Sally also litigates disparate impact discrimination cases, including Cote v. Walmart, which resulted in a $7.5 million class action settlement on behalf of Walmart associates who were unable to obtain health insurance coverage for their same-sex spouses from Walmart. In 2017, Sally won Public Justice’s prestigious Trial Lawyer of the Year Award as part of the litigation team in a class action against the Census Bureau. The case challenged the use of arrest and criminal history records as a screen for employment for 850,000 applicants and in 2016, the parties reached a landmark settlement that required the Census Bureau to reform its hiring practices for the 2020 decennial census.
Prior to joining the firm, Sally was a partner at Outten & Golden LLP, a plaintiff-side employment firm with a national presence. Sally also previously worked as a staff attorney at the D.C. Employment Justice Center, where she won two bench trials. She clerked for the Honorable Frank Montalvo, U.S. District Judge in the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division. In addition to serving as Judge Montalvo’s law clerk, Sally drafted speeches and papers in Spanish on topics ranging from arbitration to due process in support of Judge Montalvo’s position on the Committee on International Judicial Relations.
Sally is a member of Employment Law 360’s Employment Authority Wage & Hour Editorial Board. Sally also speaks frequently about issues facing LGBTQ employees and low-wage workers. She has won several awards and received national recognition for her litigation skills, including:
- Super Lawyers Super Lawyer: 2020-2021, 2023
- Super Lawyers Rising Star: 2016-2019
- Legal 500 United States Recommended Labor and Employment Lawyer 2019-2020
- Finalist for Public Justice’s Trial Lawyer of the Year Award 2018
- Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, Public Justice, Gonzalez v. Pritzker 2017
- National LGBT Bar Association Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 – Class of 2017
Sally is also active in a number bar and professional organizations including:
- The American Bar Association, where she currently serves as a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Track Co-Chair and LGBTQ+ Affinity Group Co-Chair
- The American Bar Association, where she is a member of the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
- National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
- The First Shift Justice Project, where she serves as a Board Member
Sally received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her J.D., with honors, from American University’s Washington College of Law where she received the Dean’s Award for Professional Responsibility – Outstanding Student in the Clinical Program for her work with the Domestic Violence Clinic.