Terminated From Ca-based Company While Pregnant And Caring For Disabled Child — Remote Employee In Nc

Location: CA (recent PCS)

I’m wondering if this is worth consulting an employment attorney about and which state’s laws would potentially apply.
I worked remotely from North Carolina for a large tech/cybersecurity company headquartered in California. I was terminated in October 2025.
At the time, I was pregnant, my spouse was deployed with the military, and I was the primary caregiver for our young child who has a disability and required frequent therapy and medical appointments.
My manager knew about my situation. During our meetings I would bring up needing flexibility/time for my son’s therapy and appointments, and she would verbally approve it. I was never told that I needed to submit anything differently or that these absences/flexibility were becoming a problem.
I did have performance issues involving SLA and quality-control metrics, so I’m not claiming there were zero legitimate performance concerns. However, toward the end of my employment, I noticed management becoming extremely focused on documenting mistakes, including very small issues that previously did not seem significant.
I was never told I was being placed on a PIP or that my job was in immediate danger.
I then joined what was supposed to be my regularly scheduled meeting with my manager and unexpectedly found HR there. I was terminated during that meeting and immediately lost access to my work account, files, and communications. Some of those communications contained conversations/context regarding my circumstances and scheduling needs.
There were also budget constraints/reductions occurring within our department around this period, and management of the team had been somewhat unstable, with people being moved around to fill management gaps.
I understand that having a disabled child, being pregnant, or having a deployed spouse does not prevent an employer from terminating someone for legitimate performance reasons. What I’m trying to understand is whether the combination of circumstances warrants having an attorney review the termination—particularly because management knew I needed recurring flexibility to take my disabled child to therapy/medical appointments.
My main questions are:
Since I physically worked in North Carolina but the employer is headquartered in California, which state’s employment/leave laws would generally apply?
Could my verbal requests for time/flexibility for my child’s therapy or medical appointments potentially qualify as notice of protected intermittent leave even though I never specifically requested “FMLA”?
Does pregnancy at the time of termination add any separate considerations?
Is there any significance to increased documentation of minor performance issues shortly before termination if legitimate SLA/QC concerns also existed?
Since I immediately lost access to work communications that could potentially support my account, are there ways an attorney could obtain/preserve those records?
Since the termination occurred in October 2025, are there filing deadlines I need to be concerned about now?
I’m not looking to sue just because I was fired. I’m trying to determine whether these facts are enough that I should have an employment attorney review the situation before any applicable deadlines expire.