Proskauer (Labor & Employment)

We are 725+ lawyers serving clients from 13 offices located in the leading financial and business centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The world’s leading organizations, companies and corporations choose us to be their representatives in their most critical situations.  But more, they consider Proskauer a strategic partner to drive their business forward.  We work with asset managers, major sports leagues, Fortune 500 companies, entertainment industry legends and other industry-redefining companies.

Labor and Employment Overview: 
Our department is one of the strongest practices in the world with lawyers across the U.S., and in London and Paris. We have experience covering every area of labor and employment law and handle the complete range of sophisticated litigation, trial, appellate and counseling, as well as traditional labor relations and collective bargaining matters. We have earned a reputation for achieving our clients’ labor and employment goals and obtaining successful outcomes in state and federal courts, before governmental agencies, and before arbitration panels both in the U.S. and internationally.

Select recent representations include:
We represented Charles Schwab in a suit alleging breach of fiduciary duty claims on behalf of Charles Schwab’s 401(k) plan under ERISA Section 502(a)(2) and (3) alleging that Charles Schwab imprudently offered its own proprietary funds and services in the company’s 401(k) plan and as a result violated various prohibited transaction rules. Plaintiff sought to represent a class of roughly 25,000 participants. The Ninth Circuit ruled that Charles Schwab’s 401(k) plan provision requiring participants to arbitrate any/all claims individually (not class/collective arbitration) was enforceable and instructed the district court to order individual arbitration and limited the relief to the plaintiff’s individual losses. This is the first time that a circuit court has ruled that ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims brought on behalf of a plan are subject to individual arbitration.

We represent Viacom Inc. in a high-profile litigation involving Netflix’s poaching of high-level Viacom executive, Momita SenGupta, who was under an enforceable term employment contract at the time of her October 2018 hiring by Netflix. 

We represent the New York City Ballet and guided the organization and its Board of Directors through a lengthy, highly-publicized investigation into multiple allegations that Peter Martins, its former Ballet Master in Chief, had engaged in a pattern of abusive conduct over the course of several decades. The investigation did not corroborate any allegations of sexual harassment or physical abuse. In the wake of the investigation, the firm also advised the Ballet on the implementation of new policies. We are also handling litigations that implicate the period of Mr. Martin’s leadership.

We represent The New York Times in employment litigation matters, one of the most significant matters being a class action suit alleging wage discrimination on gender, race, and age grounds against members of the Advertising Department filed in the Southern District of New York. On November 8, 2018, Judge Castel granted our motion to strike remaining age and race class claims, arguing that the proposed classes were not sufficiently numerous and that there were compelling reasons to strike the classes that did not require an exhaustive discovery effort. This matter remains ongoing.

We obtained early dismissal in February 2019 of several key claims in a nationwide putative class action filed against McDonald’s Corporation in the District of South Carolina. The Plaintiffs seek to represent a class of all job applicants at McDonald’s restaurants whose applications were disregarded based on their names being deemed “minority-sounding.” This case is also of major significance to McDonald’s Corp. as Plaintiffs seek to hold the company liable for the alleged hiring practices of its franchisees under a joint employer theory of liability.

We represented Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in litigation against United Talent Agency (UTA) and a group of defecting CAA talent agents in which California’s “7-year rule” was being tested. (The 7-year rule has significance to all entertainment companies and their employees with term employment contracts). The former CAA agents were under contract with CAA at the time of their departure for UTA, resulting in CAA’s claims against them for breach of contract and against UTA and others for tortious interference with contract and unfair competition. The case was settled in January 2019.

We obtained a victory on behalf of our client, NBCUniversal Media, Inc. (NBC), when New York Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead granted our motion to dismiss a lawsuit and compel arbitration of race discrimination and defamation claims filed by two former NBC cameramen who worked on the Tonight Show. The former employees alleged that NBC violated the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws when it terminated their employment, that the musical director of the Tonight Show, “Questlove,” aided and abetted NBC by pressuring NBC to fire the plaintiffs, and that NBC defamed the plaintiffs through statements allegedly made by an executive following their departure from NBC. Following a lengthy oral argument held on September 25, 2018, Judge Edmead issued a decision from the bench granting our motion to dismiss and compel arbitration.

We represented Columbia University in a three-week jury trial in July 2018 in a suit filed in the Southern District of New York involving claims of sexual harassment and retaliation by former Business School professor Enrichetta Ravina. The plaintiff alleged that the University retaliated against her for reporting alleged sexual harassment by a senior colleague and discriminated based on gender against her by denying her tenure and failing to grant her a personal hardship leave. Columbia was found not liable for harassment or retaliation for its own conduct.

We represent the Metropolitan Opera in several labor and employment matters. The Metropolitan Opera was sued in New York State Supreme Court by conductor James Levine for breach of contract and defamation in May 2018. Proskauer won dismissal on all but one of the defamation claims.

We prevailed on behalf of J.P. Morgan Securities (JPMS) before the First Circuit Court of Appeals, as the court affirmed dismissal by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts of a plaintiff’s Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation claims against JPMS. This is part of a long-running dispute with the plaintiff, who has filed a lawsuit in New York state court, a lawsuit in federal district court, four SOX complaints with OSHA, and a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, all claiming that he has been blacklisted or otherwise retaliated against for engaging in protected activity during his employment. The District Court granted our motion to dismiss and the First Circuit affirmed, concluding that the plaintiff’s SOX claims were time-barred and that his Dodd-Frank claim failed because, among other reasons, he did not report violations to the SEC. 

Last updated September 2019