Anna Levine-Gronningsater

Reviews

• ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ via AVVO

  It was almost exactly one year ago that I first spoke with Anna about my experiences of sexual harassment and retaliation with a former employer.  She helped me to understand that what happened was not my fault and that I could stand up for myself by taking action with the assistance of The Bloom Firm.  I am so glad that I heeded her suggestion - taking action that resulted in consequences for my abuser has been very healing for me.  I feel validated, like less of a victim, and as though I have been freed from the weight of this harrowing experience. Throughout the entire process, Anna was always there for me to answer my questions, allay my concerns, and support me.  She provided sage advice, consistently anticipated the best next steps, and made me feel like a priority even though I know she was managing other cases in addition to mine. I am so grateful that this process yielded a positive outcome and that I can close this ugly, painful chapter of my life.  None of this would have been possible without Anna's guidance, hard work, and support.  Anna is an incredible attorney and I could not have gone through this without her by my side.

• ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ via AVVO

  When Anita Hill said that women don’t report sexual harassment, they seek “better employment opportunities,” my reaction was, well, duh. I certainly had done everything I possibly could to avoid reporting sexual harassment—appease, evade, normalize, ignore—and after a year, was facing the loss of a career I had spent a decade building. What's more, my attempts to endure it, outsmart it, work harder, manage it into productive working relationship actually had implicated me. It looked bleak: Stepping out against the man who held my career, reputation, network, better employment opportunities in the palm of his hand, who signed my paycheck, seemed like an excellent way to commit professional suicide, and, on a personal level, volunteer to live in hell. When I first spoke with Anna Levine-Gronningsater, she affirmed that such apprehensions were quite valid, if accurate. I appreciated the honesty. Anna is a tactician. She is meticulous and careful. Her precision is stunning, her expertise severe: “I am not telling you the law as we hope it to be, I am telling you the law as it actually is,” she wrote to me when we were in the throws of it. It made me trust her. Her passion is implicit, impeachable. She doesn’t need to prove it. That freed up a lot of time for logic, planning, and real work, and that combination was ferocious. Anna picked up every single one of my many, many calls. She never tried to play therapist, she was a lawyer. She defended me. She is always kind, but unsentimental, and exceedingly realistic. This would be a person incapable of bullshit. With hindsight, I suspect this is because she cares so much about her clients, enough to understand that giving one false hope would be cruel. We won my case. A seven figure settlement, ten times the initial estimate. Anna, I think, was surprised, and I agreed the results were pretty unbelievable, though I was not that surprised. I watched her build my case, manage my expectations, tell me the truth, even when the truth was awful. We were honest, prepared. It’s been a year since Anna first took my call. I was uncertain, ashamed, and generally terrified. People talk a lot about things like justice, and I talked a lot about wanting it, though I don’t think I knew what it meant until the night we won. I felt like I was worthy, that my experience was just as meaningful as the next person, as his experience. Sometimes I say the number in my head, because it is so unbelievable. I proved my worth that night. He had to pay for what he did. I no longer need to prove a thing. I have guts. I am still not sure how to thank someone for a gift that big. The word gratitude seems too small. Anna showed me how to have worth.