practice areas
education
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Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 1994 J.D., cum laude
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Stevens Institute of Technology, 1988 (Degree in Electrical Engineering)
Admitted In
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New York
Publications
Recent Trends Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 37th Annual Institute on Employment Law, Practicing Law Institute, 2008
Todd Gutfleisch
Partner
Todd Gutfleisch is an employment lawyer and litigator who provides practical advice and aggressive advocacy. Mr. Gutfleisch represents clients in all aspects of the employment relationship, both within and outside of the financial services industry, on behalf of both individuals and companies. In addition to counseling clients and negotiating employment contracts and separation agreements, Mr. Gutfleisch negotiates, mediates and litigates compensation, unlawful termination, defamation, discrimination, whistleblowing and retaliation claims before regulatory and arbitration tribunals (e.g., JAMS and the American Arbitration Association) and state and federal agencies and courts. Mr. Gutfleisch also represents licensed securities professionals in regulatory inquires, and specializes in wage-and-hour class actions (including claims for failure to pay overtime, incorrect designations, and unlawful deductions from compensation). Mr. Gutfleisch is ranked by Chambers in Labor and Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs and was selected as a Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyer by Lawdragon.
Previously, Mr. Gutfleisch was an Executive Director at JP Morgan Chase & Co. for almost fifteen years representing the bank in a wide range of employment matters. Mr. Gutfleisch had primary responsibility for employment law issues in JP Morgan’s investment bank, and was responsible for all wage-and-hour class action litigation and compliance.
Among Mr. Gutfleisch’s successes include:
· A FINRA arbitration award of nearly $7 million for a financial advisor wrongfully terminated from a public bank, including recovering $1 million in punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
· After a long battle in state court, a week-long FINRA arbitration and hearings in federal court, recovering for a trader the intellectual property that he developed while at a large financial institution.
· Recovery of full back pay, emotional distress, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees in a AAA arbitration on behalf of an accountant wrongfully terminated in violation of New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act.
· An eight figure settlement of a claim brought seeking unpaid incentive compensation on behalf of several terminated trading and sales executives following their terminations as part of a merger.
· Recovered unpaid incentive compensation of nearly $2 million for a terminated bank executive.
· A multi-million dollar settlement against a large financial institution on behalf of two employees terminated because of their age.
· A $1.5 million FINRA award against a British bank which withheld a former executive’s deferred compensation.
· Settled an overtime class action claim for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act brought on behalf of a group of financial advisors, for nearly $1 million.
· Only days after a federal court temporarily restrained an employee from commencing new employment, successfully defeated the former employer’s preliminary injunction claim, paving the way for a resolution under which the employee immediately commenced employment without restriction.
Mr. Gutfleisch is admitted to the bar of New York, the bars of the United States District Courts for New Jersey, the Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of New York, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.