Trial lawyer sues San Diego bar association over rumors of sexual harassment

Well-known plaintiffs’ attorney John H. Gomez sued the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, claiming it has sullied his reputation.

Sexual harassment allegations have dogged Gomez for several years, most of which he has denied. Gomez said he settled two sexual harassment cases. The filing acknowledges there are pending complaints with the State Bar.

The lawsuit filed Monday in San Diego County Superior Court mentions some big names in the Southern California legal community, including Gary A. Dordick, Bibianne Fell, Deborah Chang, and Courtney and Nicholas Rowley. Fell and the Rowleys did not respond to requests seeking comment by press time.

“This lawsuit tells the story of how a jealous husband, a delusional and ungrateful lawyer embracing an imaginary ‘victim’ narrative, and a collection of white males with financial motives, joined together with CASD to invent a collection of ‘fantastic lies’ and to fraudulently and maliciously attack, bully and harm the largest Latino founded, and one of the most gender diverse and feminist forward plaintiffs law firm in California,” Gomez wrote in the complaint he filed on his own behalf.

Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Executive Director Bonnie R. Benitez declined to comment when contacted by email on Thursday. Gomez v. Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, 37-2023-00053715-CU-BT-CTL (S.D. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 11, 2023).

Dordick called Gomez’s complaint “a self-serving creative exercise disguised as a lawsuit” and said there are many more women with similar claims.

“I have personally spoken to and interviewed women who have said they were sexually assaulted or abused by Mr. Gomez,” said Dordick, with Dordick Law Corporation in Beverly Hills. “In my assessment of the information I was provided with from many different sources, my personal conclusion was it was more likely than not that many if not all of the women were telling the truth.”

Gomez said his principal goal is to clear his name.

“That’s most important,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “I’ve taken the high road for 21/2 years and really tried to allow the truth to speak for itself. But the attacks just continued relentlessly, so I finally felt that for my clients, for my employees, for my law firm and for my family, I had to stand up for the truth.”

The complaint states that since 2021 he has been subject to a “highly orchestrated conspiracy of fantastic lies suggesting Gomez is some kind of serial sexual harasser” and used his law firm, Gomez Trial Attorneys in San Diego, to find women for his “sexual gratification.” He also wrote that he “hoped and prayed that one of the so-called ‘victim’ lawyers telling the fantastic lies would actually follow proper legal channels to allow Gomez and GTA an opportunity to defend themselves under oath and in court,” but they did not because they didn’t want to “commit perjury.”

Gomez claimed he dated attorney Courtney Rowley for several months beginning in 2012, before she met her husband, Nicholas Rowley. He wrote that much later Nicholas Rowley became enraged with him and began years of trying to “cancel” Gomez from public appearances. In 2021, Gomez said he learned that “Rowley had suddenly accused him of sexually assaulting (or even raping) Courtney although Gomez had not seen Courtney in more than ten years.”

The Rowleys later shared these accusations with Dordick and attorney Bob Simon, Gomez claimed. When he tried to speak to each of them, he wrote, it became clear they “were not interested in listening to his side.” The accusation began a chain of events which led in September to the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego — where Gomez was president in 2012 — to make him the only member it has ever expelled.

Correspondence is included in the complaint that purports to show that Fell told the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Board of Directors that Gomez sexually harassed her while she worked at his firm, something he denies.

Gomez also acknowledged he resigned his membership from the Consumer Attorneys of California. This corresponds with a 2021 letter obtained by the Daily Journal from then-CAOC President Deborah Chang to Courtney Rowley about “her experience of events involving John Gomez.” In the letter, Chang refers to several recent laws the CAOC helped pass strengthening the civil consequences of sexual harassment and assault.

“Before CAOC had an opportunity to address this issue pursuant to our bylaws, Mr. Gomez voluntarily resigned from CAOC membership — thus rendering any internal CAOC process moot,” Chang wrote.

In his lawsuit, Gomez acknowledged he was sued twice for sexual harassment in 2014. One instance happened when he was texting “while intoxicated” with a female attorney and he “mistakenly thought the woman was interested in him” and only later found out had applied for a job with his firm, he wrote in the complaint. He denied the behavior alleged in the other case and wrote he is “remarried, a happy and faithful husband, committed father and devout Christian.”

He included correspondence with the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego board where he wrote, “I settled both lawsuits for economic reasons.”

The Daily Journal also obtained an email confirming Gomez is facing a complaint to the State Bar.

His complaint claims he deserves damages from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego because of breach of contract, fiduciary duty and good faith, as well as the intentional interference of economic relations and infliction of emotional distress. Gomez said the allegations against him have caused his firm to lose clients and revenue. While his complaint only names the organization and “Does 1-25,” he said he might add additional defendants or file more cases in the future.

“I’m trying to prevent this kind of thing from happening to others,” Gomez said.