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Betsy Plevan is a Partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department, co-head of both the International Labor & Employment Group and Class/Collective Action Group, and a former member of the firm’s seven-person Executive Committee. She has built her practice handling all types of labor and employment litigation, as well as counseling clients in employment matters. In addition to maintaining her active practice, she recently completed a two-year term as President of the New York City Bar.

Betsy’s practice includes representing clients in such diverse industries as banking and finance, health care, entertainment, publishing and consumer products. She spends considerable time representing leading law firms in counseling and litigation assignments. She has handled both single plaintiff and class action lawsuits involving issues of discrimination, harassment and employee benefits matters. Betsy has successfully tried a number of jury and non-jury cases in New York and elsewhere in the U.S., and her trial work has been recognized by her induction as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. She also has argued more than 50 appeals in state and federal courts, and she has been elected a member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Betsy has been involved in representing employers in sexual harassment matters for many years. Noteworthy cases include, among others, her retention by Meritor Savings Bank to handle the remand of the landmark Supreme Court case in this area. She also handled, on appeal, the landmark case in which the New York Court of Appeals reversed a $4 million punitive damages award against the magazine Penthouse on the ground that no punitive damages are available under the State Human Rights Law.

In the employee benefits area, Betsy has handled class action lawsuits involving alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, COBRA violations and termination of retiree benefits. She also has extensive experience counseling employers on litigation avoidance and sexual harassment investigations and training management employees in these areas.

Betsy is frequently quoted in national newspapers, legal and other trade publications and has appeared on television to discuss employment issues, especially sexual harassment suits, about which she has lectured and written extensively.

AMLAW Litigation Department of the Year
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