Cary is a founding member of Royal Oak law firm Pitt McGehee Palmer & Rivers. She has specialized in employment and civil rights litigation for 25 years, since graduating magna cum laude from the Detroit College of Law in 1989.
Cary has successfully litigated and tried numerous civil rights cases resulting in favorable settlements and verdicts for her clients in the state and federal courts.
These include: discrimination cases based on age, national origin, sex, race and disability; cases alleging retaliation; sexual, racial and national origin harassment; violations of Family and Medical Leave Act: Whistleblowers Protection Act; and prisoner rights cases.
She is also a member of the Flint Water Class Action Litigation team, which is currently litigating multiple class action lawsuits in federal and state court.
Cary was selected a 2016 “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers in America; has received AV peer rating (highest possible) from Martindale-Hubbell and has been annually rated as one of the state’s top employment lawyers by Michigan Super Lawyers since 2006.
She was co-counsel on Neal vs. Michigan Department of Corrections case, a successful class action lawsuit filed on behalf of over 500 female prisoners who were sexually assaulted by male prison guards. For her work on this case, Cary was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Public Justice Foundation (2008) in honor of her outstanding contribution to the public interest.
She has also received the Lawyers for the People Award from the National Lawyers Guild (2008) in recognition of extraordinary commitment to uphold human, civil, and constitutional rights; and the Wade Hampton McCree Jr. Award (2009) for the advancement of social justice awarded by the Federal Bar Association.
Cary serves on the Michigan State College of Law Board of Trustees and as Chair of the Local Rules Advisory Committee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
In addition, she was elected Fellow by the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, recognizing her sustained contribution to the field of labor and employment law and her high standards of integrity, professionalism and character.
Cary helped organize and lead the 2013 and 2016 MCHR Freedom Tours, taking 35 high school students on a two-week journey through southern states and visited key historic sites of the civil rights movement. It was an extraordinary opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the civil rights movement, to learn the history, to study and embody nonviolence, to build community and inspire our future social justice and civil rights leaders.