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Elise M. Bloom

Partner

New York +1.212.969.3410

A winning trial strategy starts with a winning team.

Elise M. Bloom is widely hailed as one of the nation’s top employment lawyers and one of the most creative and effective discrimination, wage and hour, class/collective action trial lawyers. She is particularly well-known for handling high profile, bet-the-company matters on behalf of significant national employers.

Elise is the former co-chair of Proskauer’s Labor & Employment Department, co-head of the Class & Collective Actions Group and previously served as a member of Proskauer’s elected Executive Committee for two terms.

With 30+ years in practice, Elise possesses extensive pre-trial and jury trial experience as well as conducting high-profile investigations. She has represented more companies in class actions challenging interns, trainees and volunteers than most others; this includes her precedent-setting win for Fox Searchlight Pictures in the “Black Swan” case. She also addresses a wider range of general employment issues through counseling and employer training programs.

A noted author and speaker on employment-related topics, Elise spearheads Proskauer’s annual Value Insights: Delivering Value in Labor and Employment Law survey. Elise has been recognized as one of the leading employment lawyers by several leading publications such as Chambers USA, Legal 500, New York Law Journal and Employment Law360, to name a few. She was recently recognized as “Labor & Employment Management Attorney of the Year” at Benchmark Litigation’s 2020 US Awards EAST. She has also been named "Best in Labor & Employment" at Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Awards Americas in 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2014. A client recently told Chambers USA, “She's incredible. She has an intensity about her work and she knows how corporations work. To watch her in litigation is magic."

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Represented more companies in class actions challenging interns, trainees and volunteers than any firm in the country, including the precedent-setting win in the “Black Swan” case, where we defended Fox Searchlight Pictures, and convinced the Second Circuit in July 2015 to adopt our positions in their entirety and reject the standards for determining “employee” status under the FLSA that were advocated by both the plaintiffs and the Department of Labor (DOL). Since no court had yet determined the standard for evaluating the legality of unpaid internships, the case raised questions of first impression. Elise argued that the court should adopt a “primary beneficiary” test, weighing the benefit to each intern against the benefit to the company, and that no class or collective could be certified under that standard. The precedent-setting winning argument, or "Glatt test," was repeatedly cited by other firms in intern cases from this point on. In 2018, the DOL announced it was adopting this “primary beneficiary” test for determining whether interns are employees under the FLSA, abandoning the six-factor test previously used for many years. Additional clients include: ICM Partners, Condé Nast, Barneys, Marvel Entertainment, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch, Sony Music, CBS, Gawker, Oscar de la Renta and others.
Following more than nine years of litigation and shortly before the start of an anticipated months-long trial, settled one of the largest wage and hour class and collective action lawsuits brought by minor league baseball players against Major League Baseball (MLB) and 22 of its member Clubs in the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs alleged that minor league baseball players were misclassified as exempt from federal and state minimum wage and overtime laws, in addition to bringing a number of derivative claims. The district court granted final approval of the settlement at the end of March 2023. The settlement established a $185 million gross settlement fund in exchange for a comprehensive release of wage and hour claims by a settlement class of approximately 24,000 current and former minor league baseball players. The settlement fund was a fraction of the potential exposure the clients faced at trial.
Represented Major League Baseball (MLB) in a putative class action suit brought by John Chen, who volunteered during “Fanfest”, conducted in connection with the 2013 MLB All Star Game, and subsequently sought wages for his volunteer service. Mr. Chen’s claim of wage violations under the FLSA was dismissed by the district court which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit under the seasonal exempt to the FLSA.
Scored a major victory for Coca-Cola Refreshments USA, Inc., in a case brought by 16 employees at bottling facilities in New York claiming they faced racial discrimination and a hostile work environment, among other things.
Earned a complete victory for Condé Nast and Parade Publications after the New York State Court of Appeals ruled, in a 4-3 decision, that the New York City and State Human Rights Laws (NYCHRL & NYSHRL) do not protect employees from discriminatory discharge if they neither live nor work in New York regardless of whether the challenged employment decision is made in New York. A victory for all New York-based employers with workers out of state, the case set the precedent that New York City and State Human Rights Laws do not protect employees from discriminatory discharge if they neither live nor work in New York, even if the allegedly discriminatory action occurred in New York State.
Represented Sprint Corporation in a purported national wage class action involving lifeline phones. Obtained summary judgment and dismissal of the case after significantly limiting any potential class to New York.

Proskauer

A winning trial strategy starts with a winning team.

Elise M. Bloom

Partner

New York +1.212.969.3410

A winning trial strategy starts with a winning team.

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Elise Bloom Discusses Trial Strategies

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An Analysis on Workplace Complaints in the #MeToo Era

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