Carol Humiston

Carol Humiston is an attorney in Musick Peeler’s Orange County office. Ms. Humiston has extensive trial and litigation experience, with a formidable track record in labor, employment, and civil rights law. She has successfully defended more than 40 high-stakes employment, civil rights, and wrongful death cases to verdict in Federal and state courts on behalf of public entities, public agencies and private-sector clients.

Ms. Humiston’s practice focuses on defending and resolving complex discrimination and harassment claims, wage and hour violations, civil rights and constitutional law issues, as well as defending clients against EEOC, CRD, and OSHA investigations. She counsels clients on workplace policies and procedures, the California Public Records Act, and the Brown Act.  Ms. Humiston has been recognized for her trial skills by invitation to join the American Board of Trial Advocates. 

Prior to joining Musick Peeler, Ms. Humiston served as the Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Burbank, where she successfully tried a Federal civil rights case to a defense verdict, which was ultimately affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in Ryburn v. Huff. She also defended an employment discrimination case that resulted in a reported decision that significantly impacts California employers struggling with disability accommodation claims in Raine v. City of Burbank. On behalf of her public entity clients, Ms. Humiston pursued a then-novel theory in the trial court that a public entity, who cannot be sued for punitive damages, can nonetheless sue and recover punitive damages from a private party, and prevailed in the Court of Appeal in City of Glendale v. Superior Court. 

Admissions & Associations

State Bar of California

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

United States District Courts, Central, Southern, Northern, and Eastern