Therese Lawless is a partner in the law firm of Lawless & Lawless where she practices employment law on behalf of employees. Ms. Lawless is a former president of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. She is a member and past board member of the Consumer Attorneys of California and is a member of the National Employment Lawyers' Association and the California Employment Lawyers' Association. Ms. Lawless also is a member of the Civil Rights Forum of San Francisco.

Ms. Lawless has practiced employment law exclusively on behalf of employees since 1988. She has litigated hundreds of employment and civil rights cases and has achieved substantial verdicts and settlements on behalf of her clients. Ms. Lawless frequently lectures and speaks on employment law matters and has written numerous articles for professional publications.

Ms Lawless earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University law school in 1982. In 1986, she graduated Order of the Coif from George Washington University where she was an editor on the law review. Ms. Lawless clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson from 1986 to 1987. She then briefly worked for a large Boston law firm, Gaston & Snow, before deciding to join her partner and sister, Barbara Lawless, in San Francisco.

In 2000, Ms. Lawless was awarded the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers' Association. She was a top ten finalist for the California Consumer Attorney of the Year Award in 2002.

Ms. Lawless was named one of the top plaintiff employment lawyers in San Francisco by The Recorder legal newspaper in 2004. She has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer for several years, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively. In 2007, she was named one of the Top 50 Northern California Female Attorneys. Also in 2007, The American Association of Justice (AAJ), awarded her the Distinguished Law Firm Award.