Employment Law Expert Witness

Expert Witness No.864

New York

Specialties

Fair Labor Standards Act: Coverage requirements for employers and employees; determination of exempt status employees; salary requirements for exemption; determination of hours worked; calculation of regular rate; back-pay and damages.

Americans with Disabilities Act: All areas under Title I, including, but not limited to: disability, otherwise qualified, reasonable accommodation, discrimination, defenses, alcoholism and drug addiction, medical examinations and inquiries.

Family Medical Leave Act: Coverage of employers and employees, qualifying circumstances, serious health conditions, notice requirements, medical certification requirements, intermittent leave, reinstatement, backpay and damages.

Employment Discrimination: Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (including harassment, pregnancy discrimination, national origin, religion, retaliation, disparate impact, statistical evidence, and defenses to intentional discrimination); Age Discrimination in Employment Act; Older Worker’s Benefits Protection Act (including reductions in force and separation agreements); Equal Pay Act.

Workplace Privacy: Employee searches at workplace, recording/tapping of oral and/or phone conversations, visual surveillance, electronic surveillance (including use of company e-mail and/or internet).

Immigration Law: employment related visas including H1B, L1, B1, B2, NAFTA.

Nationally renowned speaker and author on Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII, Fair Labor Standards Act, and Family and Medical Leave Act, 1991 - Present.

Professional Employment

Employment Law Consultant, New York, NY, January 2000 – present

Performed employment law-related investigations, training, policy development/review, expert witnessing, and consultation on employment compliancy subjects, which included harassment, disability, Federal and state discrimination law, Family & Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, reductions in force, and workplace privacy. Developed turn-key solution packages for employers to ensure compliance with the ADA, FMLA, and FLSA. Represented both employers and workers on exemption-related FLSA matters.

International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY
Senior Counsel, 1983 – 2000

In-house employment counsel at IBM with 17 years experience as the company’s worldwide legal expert on the FLSA, state wage and hour laws, federal and state discrimination laws, Family and Medical Leave Act, privacy and immigration. Job functions include advising field lawyers and personnel departments, developing human resource policies and training programs, assisting the government relations department, supervising junior attorneys and paralegals, and playing an active role in litigation matters. Duties included ensuring corporate compliance with federal, state and local laws, solving complex employment-related legal issues, writing legal memoranda and responses to discrimination charges, and developing and delivering training programs.

Accomplishments while at IBM:

Policy

Revamped corporate policy for determining which employees were exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, resulting in $15 to $20 million in savings to IBM.

Chaired task force which streamlined the IBM long-term disability and sickness and accident plans in order to enable the company to deal more effectively and rapidly with employees with chronic absenteeism problems.

Determined the misclassification of hundreds of exempt employees in an acquired company and led task force that reclassified them as non-exempt and back-paid them.

Successfully determined methods to ensure that non-degreed engineers classified as exempt professionals met the FLSA tests for professional and administrative exemption.

Uncovered and resolved miscalculation of overtime compensation that failed to include production awards and bonuses in the calculation of the regular rate for non-exempt employees.

Litigation

Reviewed and prepared responses to hundreds of discrimination charges filed against IBM in federal and state agencies, each of which resulted in a finding of no probable cause. Prepared and argued employment law cases in front of administrative agencies. Directed outside counsel and provided substantive guidance and strategic direction for employment discrimination lawsuits.

Uncovered evidence in government documentation that resulted in a favorable settlement in a major public-works litigation that the state had brought against the company.

Lobbying

Persuaded California Industrial Welfare Commission to shift from a daily to a weekly basis for the calculation of overtime, affording IBM the opportunity to save more than $10 million in annual labor and administrative costs.

Convinced New York and Connecticut governments to amend law to permit IBM to pay manual workers on a semi-monthly basis rather than on a weekly or biweekly basis.

Confidential Attorney Client Priviliged Writings at IBM:

Prepared more than 200 confidential internal legal memoranda on all my areas of expertise in employment law. Subject covered included determination of the proper exemption of customer service representatives, technicians, salespersons, exempt employees performing non-exempt work on a temporary basis, inclusion of on-call bonuses in the calculation of overtime, proper calculation of the hourly rate for employees receiving different hourly compensation in a workweek.

Extensive guidelines for managers and human resources professionals in the determination of the exempt status of all company employees.

Determination of the applicability of the FLSA to students receiving school credit while working at the company.

Academic Employment

Fordham University School of Law, New York, NY, Adjunct Professor - 1992-Present

Teach the fall semester night course on Employment Discrimination Law. Course subjects include Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Equal Pay Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Title VII, and Section 1981.

Seton Hall University Law School, Newark, NJ, Guest Lecturer -1995 - 1997
Adjunct Professor 1998

Taught the classes on FLSA and FMLA in an Employment Law class. In 1998, taught the entire semester, the subjects of which included FLSA, FMLA, Civil Service, employment discrimination, ERISA, common law, employment at will, and workplace privacy

Litigation Experience

New York State Bar Association, New York, NY, Volunteer Civil Litigator, 1984 - 1992

Represented indigent clients in a variety of matters, including collective bargaining agreement benefits, non-payment of overtime, consumer protection, family and custody issues, and landlord/tenant disputes. Negotiated with hospital workers’ union for medical benefits withheld from disabled retiree. Received New York State Bar Association’s Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award in 1986, 1989, and 1990.

Education

New York University School of Law, New York, NY- LL.M., May 1999
Labor and Employment Law

Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA J.D., May 1983

Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, MA M.P.A., May 1983

Columbia University, New York, NY, B.A., cum laude, May 1979
Majors: Sociology and History

Bar Admissions

New York State, 1984.
SDNY, 1985.

Publications and Presentations/Speeches

Available upon request.

Languages

Fluent in Spanish, German, French, and Italian.