We were also recently honored as one of the top three firms nationwide for Labor & Employment Litigation by The American Lawyer, where it was noted that clients retain Proskauer when "the company's reputation is on the line" and "managing the public face of litigation" is of utmost importance. Indeed, our high-profile matters involve sensitive, complex situations with sweeping ramifications that impact both our clients and their industries.
We field experienced teams covering every aspect of labor and employment law. We have long been the leading firm for traditional labor-management relations disputes and also rank high in the complex field of class and collective actions, with a particular focus on wage and hour class actions. Similarly our executive compensation, employee benefits and ERISA litigation practice is highly ranked among the best in US Legal 500 and Chambers USA. Our immigration lawyers have been praised by Chambers for understanding of both the law and the business needs of our clients and Chambers has singled out our sports practice as the world’s best. With a number of former government officials in our department, we have a unique seat at the table as groundbreaking labor and employment laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Employee Free Choice Act, Family and Medical Leave Act and a host of other new legislation and regulations are considered, shaped and debated.
14 Penn Plaza in a precedent-setting victory before the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that mandatory arbitration clauses for age discrimination claims in collective bargaining agreements are fully enforceable
Bristol-Myers Squibb in defeating a wage and hour case involving more than 2,400 putative class members, successfully opposing a motion to send notice to the entire group and to conditionally certify the class. The decision was the first in more than 20 years to address the administrative exemption relating to overtime for pharmaceutical sales representatives and has become one of the most frequently cited wage and hour cases in the U.S.
A number of sports facilities across the U.S., including playing the primary role in spearheading the accessibility compliance work and disability policy issues for the New York Yankees relating to the development, construction and operation of the new Yankee Stadium
Paramount Pictures Corporation in a class action involving allegedly unpaid meal breaks and rest periods
Whole Foods Market, the world's leading retailer of natural and organic foods, on day-to-day labor and employment matters, including strategic advice on human resource issues and drafting policies and handbooks
Hess Corporation against claims in the New Jersey federal and state courts, alleging discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination, obtaining a precedent-setting federal ruling, dismissing the plaintiff’s claims due to abuse of the discovery process and failure to comply with multiple court orders
Natixis, a key player in the French banking sector, in a collective redundancy affecting approximately 1,000 employees
The New York Times Company, for which we have been go-to labor counsel for more than 20 years, in the administration of a discrimination decree governing the hiring of a specific class of employees in its pressroom
HSBC Bank, guiding the company's human resources, legal counsel and employees through rapid and extensive changes in U.S. immigration laws
Ford Motor Company in successful collective bargaining with the United Auto Workers
The NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, Major League Soccer and the WNBA as go-to labor counsel
Honeywell International in a suit seeking ownership of inventions, successfully arguing that ambiguities in the agreement at the center of the case allowed it to be reformed to reflect its ordinary and expected meaning, protecting Honeywell's interests in the inventions
Comtech Aero Astro, Inc. in an emergent lawsuit against two former executives and their new employer, Sierra Nevada Corporation, for violations of restrictive covenants and non-disclosure agreements
Lorillard Tobacco Company, Inc. in a nationwide FLSA collective action in which a former sales representative alleged that he and all other sales representatives routinely worked more than 40 hours per week but did not receive overtime because they were misclassified as exempt from overtime under the FLSA; we successfully defeated plaintiff's motion for conditional certification and his alternative motion to compel class-wide discovery
EMD Millipore, Inc. in connection with the successful negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement with the UFCW/Chemical Workers representing production and maintenance employees at Millipore’s Kankakee, IL production facility following its acquisition by global pharmaceutical and chemical company, Merck, KGaA, for $7.2 billion
Foot Locker, Inc. and the Foot Locker, Inc. Retirement Plan in a putative class action lawsuit relating to the conversion of the Foot Locker, Inc. Retirement Plan to a cash-balance formula
Time Warner Cable in a high-profile sexual harassment, equal pay and retaliation suit brought against the company’s NY1 news channel