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Our Representative Cases

Examples of the Employment Law Cases We Have Handled

The employment lawyers at Resnick & Nirenberg, P.C., handle a wide variety of employment law cases. Below is a brief description of some of the cases our attorneys have handled or are currently handling.

Index

Breach of Employment Contract and Fraud

We represent an individual who was hired by a small company as its Director of Sales. The company promised the employee a one year employment contract when he was offered the position. Our client quit another job based on that promise. However, the owner of the business refused to sign his employment contract, and then fired him within 6 months after he started working for the company. He is seeking damages for breach of contract and fraud against both the company and its owner.

One of our clients worked on the crew for a popular television program that is filmed in Bergen County, New Jersey. He was relentlessly harassed by his supervisor, and eventually filed an internal complaint of harassment under the company's internal anti-harassment policy. His supervisor retaliated against him and the company fired him after he filed his harassment complaint. He currently has a lawsuit pending against the major media company for which he worked for violating its anti-harassment policy.

Disability Discrimination and Family & Medical Leaves

We represent a sales manager who worked for a Fortune 500 company for more than 20 years. He was diagnosed with cancer and took a few days off for two separate surgeries. The company fired our client a few days after he returned to work from his second surgery. His lawsuit seeks damages for disability discrimination under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and for violations of the Family & Medical Leave Act ("FMLA").

A current employee of a major international electronics company came to our office because her manager was harassing her because she became disabled. The manager created such a hostile work environment for our client that she could no longer work for the company. As a result of our efforts, we successfully obtained a sizable severance package for her to leave the hostile environment and move on with her life.

Oppressed Minority Shareholder

We represented a shareholder in a closely held corporation who was forced out of the company, fired, and was not paid anything for the value of his shares in the company.  We brought a lawsuit on his behalf under the New Jersey Oppressed Shareholder Statute.  We were eventually able to negotiate a settlement which compensated our client for a substantial portion of his losses.

Pregnancy Discrimination

A former employee of a large manufacturing was demoted after she returned to work from her maternity leave, and eventually fired. She came to Resnick & Nirenberg to pursue claims of pregnancy discrimination. We filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"). Through EEOC mediation, we successfully negotiated an enhanced severance package on her behalf.

Retaliation and Whistleblower Claims

We represent an individual who was very outspoken about the local politics in a town in Bergen County, New Jersey. He spoke out at town council meetings, sent emails and letters to town officials, and otherwise voiced his opinion regarding local politics and other important matters. He suffered severe retaliation for exercising his first amendment rights, including the town having him involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital. He brought a civil rights case against the town and many of its officials who participated in the harassment.

Resnick & Nirenberg filed a retaliation and civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a Police Sergeant who works for a city in Northern New Jersey. During his career, the Police Sergeant objected to numerous policies and practices of the police department and the city that he believed were fraudulent and illegal, and spoke out about other matters of public concern. Unfortunately, when the police officer spoke out about those issues, he experienced harassment and retaliation such as the city transferring him to undesirable shifts and assignments, prohibiting him from working overtime, and disciplining him for no good reason. Eventually, the police department skipped the officer over for a promotion to Police Lieutenant.  We were able to resolve his case with our client receiving a promotion to Lieutenant with backpay and seniority, as well as compensation for the emotional distress he suffered and our attorney's fees.

We represented an executive who worked for a major telecommunications company in Central New Jersey. The employee sued the company under New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act ("CEPA") when he internally blew the whistle regarding the company's violations of Securities Exchange rules, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2000 ("SOX"), and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP").  We were able to resolve his case with a substantial settlement.

Severance Negotiations

We were able to negotiate a substantial severance package for an executive for a major cosmetics company who was fired after he worked for the company for more than 30 years, without any good reason.  Our client was placed on a Performance Improvement Plan with unreasonable targets that the company knew could not possibly achieve, which it used to justify firing him.  The company offered our client substantially less severance than he would have received if he had been fired as part of a reduction in force or if his job had been eliminated.  We were able to convince the company to provide him a much better severance package.

Sexual Harassment

One of our clients was a woman who complained to management after she learned that a male supervisor had severely sexually harassed another female employee.  Our client also testified against the company at a deposition in another case relating to the same sexual harassment.  The company retaliated against her, and eventually gave her the choice of either working in a location that would have required her to commute from from Bergen County to Middlesex County every day, or losing her job.  We were able to resolve her case shortly after we filed suit, through a court-ordered mediation.

Wage & Hour and Overtime

We have represented employees in multiple class action lawsuits regarding failure to pay overtime.  For example, we have brought overtime lawsuits on behalf of employees of a large national bank with a branch in Morris County, New Jersey, a national realtor doing business in Northern New Jersey, and a bar and restaurant in New York City.  Each of those cases alleged that the company had improperly designated a group of employees as exempt from time-and-a-half when they worked more than 40 hours per week.