WHO I REPRESENT

 

I help women and men in every phase of their working lives, from negotiating severance packages when they leave one job, to drafting employment contracts when their next opportunity comes along. No one wants to sue their former employer; but if I represent you, it’s because I am ready to tell your story in court.

My clients are founders of tech companies and senior executives at Fortune 100 firms who are fighting to keep the stock options they earned; my clients are also secretaries and truck drivers who just want to be paid their overtime. I represent mothers and fathers who suffer workplace retaliation when they try to balance their professional and family lives, and men and women who have worked under abusive bosses. I represent non-binary and non-gender-conforming clients who just want the right to show up and pay the bills.

 

Discrimination

Sometimes it’s racist slurs or sexist insults, right from the mouth of your boss. More often it's the certainty that you were held to a standard no one else was held to, or denied opportunities afforded to everyone else—and that it had something to do with your accent, your religion, your disability, your skin. Nothing satisfies me more than the hard work of coaxing witnesses to come forward about discrimination, and proving a boss's intentions from his innuendoes. If you believe you've been discriminated against, I can help.

 

Unpaid Wages

Every state has different statutes and regulations, but there is one constant in American law: Employers must pay their employees for their work. If your employer was late making payroll, or shorted your time, or made you work unpaid through lunch or breaks, or withheld your commissions, I want to get you paid.

 

Stock, Options & Equity

Many of my clients are entrepreneurs who founded or co-founded companies. Many others are highly compensated executives who were granted stock as part of their annual compensation. Increasingly, employers try to leverage the power that abusive stock plans give them—the power to promise something in one year, and take it away the next—to exploit even executives who had believed their talents and pay put them past such pettiness. If your employer is cheating you out of stock, or options, or your share of the business, I am ready to assist.

Harassment

I have represented both women and men who were sexually harassed and sexually assaulted in the workplace, and a regular part of my practice is ensuring that my clients receive holistic care: a litigation plan that balances my client's desire for privacy or publicity with her or his need for justice and resolution; fee structures that account for my client's individual circumstances; and support finding therapy and community, to address the hurt that money will never cure. If you believe you've been harassed, I am here.

 

Breach of Contract

I love a contract. And I advise clients in every corner of the tech, finance, media, medical and manufacturing sectors about their contracts, both drafting contracts that help foster opportunity for everyone, and untangling contracts that evolved into disasters. If you need advice on your way into or out of an employment contract—or if your employer is trying to get out of yours and you want to hold them to it—reach out.

 

Non-Competes,
Non-Solicits & NDAs

It’s a shame how often management and an employee are eager to go their separate ways—and how often management then stands in the employee's way. Often employers insist, based on something thoughtlessly signed five or ten years previous, that their departing employee cannot now work for companies A, B or C. If you are beginning a new job and want help negotiating your non-compete or NDA, or are leaving an old job and need advice on your restrictions, drop me a line.

Retaliation

Maybe you blew the whistle on your boss, because you thought the Board would want to know about financial misdeeds. Maybe you went to HR about your co-worker, because you wanted to protect your friends at work. And the next thing you knew, you were iced out, you were passed over, your position was eliminated, you were written up for nothing. If you believe you've been retaliated against, let me know.

 

Parental Leave & Sick Time

I have three young children, and I know intimately the sacrifices that working parents make. Many companies say they support diverse employees and working parents, and they do—up to a point. They'll tolerate the needs of parents juggling one kid, but not the needs of parents juggling two. They'll accommodate the needs of white parents with older kids, but not the needs of brown parents with infants and toddlers. It all comes down to the same thing, though: When mothers or fathers ask an employer for consideration for the demands of having children, all too often they put their careers on the line. If you are a parent who needs help at work, I am your ally.

 

Litigation

Many lawyers boast that “from day one” they prepare for trial. (This always sounded to me like a ship’s captain boasting that “from day one” he prepares for the sea.) I have built my career representing clients in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitrations and mediations. Wherever your case takes us, I will be by your side.