Civil Rights and Employment Litigation

The attorneys on our Civil Rights and Employment Litigation practice group represent clients in the areas of employment law, education law and municipal law. We handle cases involving allegations of disability law violations, police brutality, wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution and Fair Housing Act violations. With respect to employment law, we also regularly represent our clients in matters involving:

• Interpretation and application of personnel policies 
• Post-employment covenants
• Breaches of contract
• Breaches of fiduciary duty
• Trade secret violations
• Whistleblower claims
• Misappropriation of proprietary information
• Unfair business practices
• Covenants not to compete
• Drug testing
• Hiring, promotion, termination, discipline and reductions in force
• Polygraph tests
• Smoking
• Sexual harassment
• Employee handbooks
• Affirmative action plans
• Wage and hour
• Collective actions

Our attorneys are also regularly involved in matters involving the Family Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, HIPAA, USERRA, ERISA, the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and the New York State Labor Law. We regularly appear on behalf of our clients in federal and state courts; before federal, state and local administrative agencies; and, in mediation and arbitration proceedings in the New York metropolitan area and elsewhere. In these matters, we assist our clients with claims and coverage disputes involving directors and officers (D&O), errors and omissions (E&O) and employment practices liability (EPL) insurance as well. 

A Dedicated Team of Attorneys for Every Client

Within our Civil Rights and Employment Litigation practice group, we assign a dedicated team of attorneys, including partners and associates, to each client. We do this to avoid the learning curve involved with assigning individual matters to attorneys who are not familiar with the client’s particular needs and requirements. We play an active role in all stages of the formal and informal dispute resolution process, working closely with our clients’ key stakeholders and responding to their inquiries immediately to ensure that the solutions we offer meet their financial, operational and risk-management standards.

In this same vein, each matter entrusted to our Civil Rights and Employment Litigation practice is handled by the same team of attorneys from inception through resolution. After our initial review and investigation, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the issues presented so that we can identify our clients’ strengths and weaknesses and quickly work to resolve the case at that time if appropriate. We also provide an estimate of the legal fees and the potential liability exposure, if any; and, as the case moves forward, we continually reassess our client’s leverage and our financial projections to ensure that our client is able to make informed decisions every step of the way. We conduct a cost-benefit analysis at each stage of the process as well in order to keep our clients’ legal expenses as low as possible. 

As part of our representation, we also offer monthly status reports that provide a brief account of each matter we are handling for a particular client. These reports are structured to meet each individual client’s case identification requirements and any other needs they may have. When more in-depth analyses are required during the course of a matter (such as a pre-trial analysis or description of a settlement proposal) we provide comprehensive and detail-oriented reports that our clients can use to strategize throughout multiple levels of their organizations.