Our Employment Law Cases

The employment law attorneys at The Nirenberg Law Firm have experience representing employees in a wide range of discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment harassment, and other workplace claims.  Below are some examples of employment law cases we have handled.

• Breach of Employment Contract and Fraud

  We represented 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 was seeking damages for breach of contract and employment fraud against both the company and its owner.

• Civil Rights / First Amendment

  We represented 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. We were able to reach a settlement of his case.

• Disability Discrimination

• Non-Compete Agreements

  Our client was sued for supposedly violating the non-compete and non-solicitation agreements in his employment contract with his former employer. We were able to get the claims against him dismissed.

• Oppressed Minority Shareholder

  We represented a shareholder in a closely held corporation who was forced out of the company and fired, but 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 to compensate our client for the value of his stock.

• Race Discrimination

  Our client, an African-American employee who worked in a New York State office for a large telecommunications company for approximately 20 years, was demoted as part of a reduction-in-force. The company disproportionately selected African-American and black employees for demotion, and eventually filled those positions by hiring and promoting mostly white employees. The company eventually fired him right before he was scheduled to testify in support of another African-American employee who alleged race discrimination.

• Retaliation and Civil Rights

  We 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 over the Sergeant for a promotion to Police Lieutenant. We were able to resolve his case with our client receiving a promotion to Lieutenant with back pay and seniority, as well as compensation for the emotional distress he experienced.

• Severance Agreement Reviews
  

• 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 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 and Hour Violations

  We have represented employees in multiple class action lawsuits regarding failure to pay overtime and minimum wage. 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.

• Whistleblower Claim

  We represented an executive who worked for a major telecommunications company in Central New Jersey. The employee sued the company for retaliation under New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act ("CEPA") after he 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.

• Workplace Harassment

  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 brought a lawsuit against the major media company for which he worked, alleging the company breached its anti-harassment policy.