practice areas
employment litigation & counseling
We are one of the premier employment firms in New York, representing individuals, teams and employers in the entire spectrum of employment related issues: restrictive covenants, employment and partnership agreements, termination disputes, discrimination claims, wage and hour litigation, and the establishment of compliance programs.
Because we represent both employees and employers, we have unmatched perspective, experience and insight from both sides of the table, which we use to achieve your goals. Our record of success across numerous matters is outstanding.
Restrictive Covenant Litigation: Non-Competes and Non-Solicits
We represent employees and employers in the negotiation and litigation of restrictive covenants. Representative matters include:
Defended Honeywell’s non-compete and non-solicit protections against a senior executive who sought a declaration they were unenforceable. Federal Judge Torres of the SDNY found Honeywell’s covenants enforceable as a matter of New Jersey law.
Counseled numerous executives, producers, professionals and teams in connection with successfully navigating a change in employment, including traders; leading insurance producers and brokers; the head of business development for a litigation funding firm; doctors; and partners at law firms, hedge funds and investment firms.
Have obtained favorable resolutions including settlements and court orders on behalf of multiple employers seeking to enforce restrictive covenants, and on behalf of employees opposing enforcement.
Employment agreements, severance & wrongful termination
We counsel employees and employers in the negotiation and drafting of employment agreements and partnership agreements, including stock grants and options, formulas for compensation, restrictive covenants, intellectual property protections, and severance provisions in the event of separation. On departure from a company, we negotiate severance agreements and where necessary, litigate to enforce rights, obligations and promises. We further represent employees and employers in all manner of wrongful termination claims, “for cause” termination and compensation disputes. We help our clients resolve employment disputes stemming from a breach of oral or written contracts, reductions in force and contested claims of ownership in companies or partnerships.
Discrimination claims
We counsel employees and employers in navigating all aspects of discrimination and retaliation claims including race and ethnic discrimination, sexual harassment, gender identity discrimination, gender stereotyping, equal pay, sex and age discrimination. We further represent our clients in whistleblower processes and claims; university campus and education program or activity discrimination under Title IX of the education amendments act; internal investigations and reaching an optimal resolution of discrimination complaints.
wage and hour FLSA Class Actions
We represent employees and defend businesses in wage and hour litigation, including Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA “) and New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) minimum wage and overtime claims, deduction from compensation claims, misclassification claims, and wage statement/notice violation claims. Representative matters include:
Co-led counsel in representing over 600 Wells Fargo financial advisors in a dispute concerning novel issues of misclassification under the FLSA and NYLL. We reached a favorable early-stage class settlement of $3.9 million.
Defending a parking garage and individual owners involving allegations of unpaid overtime. We successfully defeated collective certification significantly limiting liability against our clients.
Establishment of Corporate Compliance Programs
The Firm offers a full range of employment services to companies that address the needs of Human Resources Managers and Chief People Officers. In addition to negotiating and drafting of contracts, we provide guidance in connection with executive compensation packages, fringe benefits, and the creation of employee handbooks.
As a part of our Litigation Prevention Program, the Firm offers a wide range of training sessions to ensure compliance with federal, state and city anti-discrimination laws that govern most New York based companies. Our training sessions include preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, addressing claims of discrimination relating to race, gender, disabilities, age, national origin, criminal records, military status and avoiding the pitfalls of employee misclassification and overtime pay charges.