Practice Areas

Employment Law

The Firm is widely-recognized for providing high-quality counsel and representation to executives, professionals, managers and other employees on all aspects of employment and partnership law and litigation. The Firm's lawyers are experienced in representing executives and professionals, including attorneys, physicians, architects, investment bankers and other financial and Wall Street professionals, in employment, partnership and other business disputes. The Firm also advises and represents executives, professionals and other employees in negotiating employment and severance agreements.

The Firm's clients have included senior executives of both publicly-traded and privately-held companies, including Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers and Chief Financial Officers. The Firm has also represented partners in leading international law and accounting firms, senior managers and professionals at United States and foreign banks and financial institutions, academics at some of the country's leading universities and educational institutions and leading doctors and executives of major New York-area hospitals.

The employment cases handled by the Firm involve all aspects of employment law, including the enforcement of rights under employment contracts and federal, state and local employment discrimination laws. The Firm represents executives, professionals and employees in cases involving sex discrimination, sexual harassment, race discrimination, national origin discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, disability discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination and whistleblower retaliation.

The Firm also represents employees and executives in negotiations and litigation involving restrictions on future employment and professional activities, including non-compete clauses and restrictive covenants in employment and executive contracts.

The following are some examples of employment cases handled by the Firm:

The Firm recently won an important legal ruling extending whistle blower protection under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to oversees employees of companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges in certain circumstances. OMahony v. Accenture is the first court ruling to provide such protection to employees based outside the U.S.

Court Extends Sarbox Protection (Financial Times, February 14, 2008)

N.Y. Judge Applies SOX Protections to Ex-Partner of Global Firm's French Office (New York Law Journal, February 12, 2008)

Our attorneys won a jury verdict of $7.6 million in damages for two hospital executives who were fired after they objected to millions of dollars in improper payments by the hospital to a medical school which supplied physician and other staffing services to the hospital. Read more

The Firm represented the managing partner of the Bangkok office of Clifford Chance, one of the world's leading law firms, after he was ousted from the firm. The case was widely reported in the international legal press.

Clifford Chance Bangkok rebel just won't go quietly (The Lawyer, March 24, 2003)

Expelled Bangkok head set for feud with Clifford Chance (The Lawyer, April 7, 2003)

CC Thai feud rages as ex-partner spurns offer (The Lawyer, June 2, 2003)

Clifford Chance strikes a deal with former Bangkok partner (The Lawyer, Oct 20, 2003)

The Firm recently won a jury verdict for a former senior officer of the American Stock Exchange who was not paid bonuses to which he was entitled under the terms of his employment contract with the exchange. Read More

The Firm represented the former head of the mortgage division of a major regional bank in an action asserting a claim under a severance agreement to a share of the division's revenues following the sale of the division. We commenced a lawsuit in federal court and obtained summary judgment against the bank requiring it to pay the entire revenue share due to the executive.

The Firm won a jury verdict of $1.5 million in damages for a Bangladesh-born physician who was denied admittance to the residency training program of Brooklyn-Caledonian Hospital because of his national origin. Read more

The Firm successfully negotiated a $700,000 out-of-court settlement for a senior attorney at a major New York City law firm who was sexually harassed by one of the firm's senior partners.

The Firm obtained an $800,000 settlement for the general counsel of an international media company in litigation to enforce the terms of his employment contract.

The Firm successfully represented the CEO of a leading international research and consulting firm in litigation to enforce the severance provisions of his employment contract.

The Firm successfully represented the former Head of Derivatives Sales at one of the world's largest banks in a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.

The Firm obtained a $450,000 settlement on behalf of a registered nurse in a disability discrimination case against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

The Firm successfully represented the Chief Technology Officer of a leading international financial software company in an arbitration to enforce the severance provisions of his employment contract after his position was significantly diminished as the result of a corporate merger.

Click here to view the Employment Law Newsletter.