Peter Birzon & Associates represents clients in all forms of employment-related litigation including cases involving The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and state claims for unpaid or illegally withheld compensation, Human Rights Law violations, state Labor Law violations, OSHA violations, Executive Law violations, employee termination, employment discrimination, employee fraud, restrictive covenant violations, post-termination trade secret misuse, unpaid compensation claims and the unauthorized solicitation of employees and business associates.Our attorneys work with our clients to develop appropriate policies to avoid employment related issues, and to determine the best strategic course in the circumstance of threatened litigation. While many of our clients routinely attend to an employer's legacy obligations, we collaborate with them to update policies and practices to keep them current and compliant with federal and state regulations.
While proactive counseling, training and policy development can help to minimize litigation and legal risks, issues surrounding ownership and management decisions, every day employment occurrences, and well-intended actions can frequently become the subject matter of litigation and administrative legal proceedings. A client frequently confronts complaints before the New York State Department of Human Rights, United States Department of Labor, the New York State civil court system and the United States District Court — all arising from facts, circumstances decisions and occurrences that have a common connection. Here, it is important to quickly prioritize the risk in each proceeding and develop a comprehensive strategy that will allow us to most efficiently defend, if not nullify these proceedings. Sometimes it is appropriate to obtain a stay of one proceeding in order to allow another to move forward. Often evidence cultivated in one matter is sufficient to defeat subsequent matters.
We represent employer's against claims before federal and state trial and appellate courts and administrative agencies. Our broad experience, having worked with employers for over a decade in these matters, enables us to handle virtually any claim that is filed against our clients. While during the course of the attorney-client relationship we focus on preventive, compliant and sensible employment practices and policies, we see little choice when confronted with litigation than to send a very clear and convincing message that the employer - while bound to the rules - will not be taken advantage of as a result of their obligations under those rules.
Typically, we defend cases based on breach of contract, business torts, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, infliction of emotional duress, fraud, defamation, invasion of privacy, negligent hiring, negligent supervision, sexual discrimination, inappropriate conduct, age discrimination, age-related inappropriate conduct, wrongful termination, wrongful solicitation, breach of employment agreements, trade secret violations, equal employment opportunity, diversity, harassment, family and medical leave law, disability accommodations, religious accommodations, enforcement of covenants not to compete, declaratory judgment in regard to covenants not to compete, post-termination 401(k) and pension plan responsibilities and personal liability of shareholders, officers and directors.
We litigate and defend almost every aspect of employment litigation. We believe, however, that the greatest value is in the proactive and preventive consulting and training we make available to our clients. We offer support on an ongoing telephone call basis, blended with on-site training and instruction in the use of compliance materials and the deployment of an effective employment compliance program.