New York High-Profile Employment and Abuse-of-Power Cases

High-Profile Cases Take More Than a Demand Letter

Some employment cases involve more than a bad workplace decision. They involve powerful people: executives, founders, celebrities, physicians, media figures, high-net-worth individuals, and institutions with reputations to protect.

We represent employees and individuals who experienced sexual assault or abuse of power connected to a workplace, a professional relationship, or a position of influence. Our clients are often confronting executives, celebrities, founders, and wealthy private employers, and some are up against companies and institutions that protected the wrong person instead of addressing the problem.

Cases like these move differently. The person accused often has money, publicists, crisis counsel, and people willing to protect them. The employer or institution involved may try to frame the problem as a private relationship, a misunderstanding, or a reputational threat rather than what it is: sexual harassment, sexual assault, discrimination, or retaliation. We build these cases to hold up against that kind of pressure.

Why Clients Choose Us for High-Profile Cases:

• $360M+ recovered for 9,500+ employees, including matters against some of the most powerful individuals and institutions in the country
• 11 attorneys named to Super Lawyers, with additional recognition from Best Lawyers and U.S. News Best Law Firms
• Based in New York, with publicly filed litigation against Sean "Diddy" Combs, Harvey Weinstein, and Kanye West
• Every high-profile matter is led by a partner or senior litigator, backed by a dedicated team

If you have questions about a harassment, discrimination, or retaliation case involving employment with a high-profile individual, our attorneys can help. Call (866) 229-9441 or contact us online for a FREE, confidential consultation.

Key Takeaways

• We represent employees only, never employers, in high-profile sexual harassment, sexual assault, retaliation, and abuse-of-power cases.
• Many of our most sensitive matters are resolved privately, through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or sealed filing.
• Every high-profile matter is led by a partner or senior litigator, not handled by a single lawyer.
• Before reporting, resigning, signing anything, or going public, talk to a lawyer. Early decisions can affect the case.

Litigation We've Filed Against Powerful Defendants

The matters below are public because complaints were filed in court and the allegations were reported by established national and legal media. The descriptions reflect allegations in public filings. Defendants may deny or contest them.

Who Represents Crystal McKinney in Her Lawsuits Against Sean "Diddy" Combs and Harvey Weinstein?

We represent former fashion model Crystal McKinney in two separate federal lawsuits in the Southern District of New York — McKinney v. Combs and McKinney v. Weinstein — both alleging sexual assault connected to promised entertainment-industry opportunities. 

Partner Michelle Caiola filed and handles both matters. The cases have been covered by Rolling Stone, NBC News, People, the New York Post, and TMZ, among other national outlets.

Who Represents Jenifer An in Her Lawsuit Against Kanye West?

We represent former America's Next Top Model contestant Jenifer "Jenn" An in federal litigation alleging that Kanye West sexually assaulted her during the filming of a music video, in a professional entertainment setting where West exercised substantial influence over the production. The complaint also names Universal Music Group. 

Jesse S. Weinstein leads the matter in association with Arce Law Group. The case has been covered by Rolling Stone, People, Pitchfork, Page Six, and the BBC.

Who Represents Melisa Kulla in Her Lawsuit Against the TraxNYC Founder?

We represent Melisa Kulla in federal employment litigation against TraxNYC and its founder, Maksud Agadjani, a Diamond District jeweler who appeared in Uncut Gems. The complaint alleges harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, online humiliation, and interference with Kulla's future employment after a personal and workplace relationship deteriorated. 

Partner Michelle Caiola filed the matter, which received coverage in the New York Post.

Who Filed Joi Dickerson-Neal's Lawsuit Against Sean "Diddy" Combs?

We filed Joi Dickerson-Neal's New York Adult Survivors Act lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs in November 2023, alleging that Combs drugged and sexually assaulted Dickerson-Neal and secretly recorded the incident while she was a college student. 

Partner Michelle Caiola filed the action. The matter is now being prosecuted by successor counsel, and we maintain an attorney's lien for our work filing and developing the case. The lawsuit was covered by People, Newsweek, the New York Post, and Deadline.

Other Nationally Reported Matters

We also represent employees in nationally reported matters against major companies, including Caruso-Jones v. RBC Capital Markets, a gender and pregnancy discrimination case brought on behalf of a former managing director and covered by Bloomberg Law and HRD America. More of our litigation against large employers appears on our Experience Against Large Employers and Powerful Institutions page.

Not Every High-Profile Case Becomes Public

Many of our most sensitive matters never reach a courtroom or the press. Our litigation record and experience against sophisticated defense counsel can create leverage before a complaint is ever filed. Some matters resolve through private negotiation or mediation. Others involve arbitration, confidential investigation, sealed filing, or carefully structured settlement terms.

Because these matters are confidential, we describe the role, setting, and power dynamic involved without identifying the client, household, family, employer, or individual.

Private-Household Staff and Personal Assistants

We represent assistants, nannies, housekeepers, drivers, household managers, security staff, and personal trainers who work closely with wealthy, famous, or influential individuals and families. This kind of employment creates unusual dependence: the employer may control not just pay and schedule, but housing, transportation, immigration status, references, and access to future work, often without an HR department or neutral supervisor anywhere in the picture.

That closeness can blur professional boundaries. Conduct gets excused as part of a demanding personality or written off as a private relationship, when it may actually be harassment, coercion, discrimination, or retaliation, made harder to report because speaking up can threaten both the current job and the ability to work in that world again.

We've represented employees in confidential matters involving a music-industry executive's assistant, a nanny for an entertainment-industry family, an internationally recognized artist's personal assistant, a musician's driver, a household manager for a prominent family, and a personal trainer for a nationally known American family, among others. As with all confidential matters, we don't identify the households, families, or individuals involved without authorization.

Can a Producer, Agent, or Instructor Who Controls Your Career Be Held Liable?

Some abuse-of-power cases don't involve a traditional employer at all. A producer, artist, agent, instructor, executive, or institutional decision-maker can control access to roles, auditions, training, assignments, or an entire career path. Performers, students, applicants, models, and junior employees are often the ones affected.

The legal relationship may look different from a standard workplace case, but the core issue is usually the same: whether someone used professional authority or control over future opportunities to pressure, exploit, harass, or retaliate against another person. What's at stake can extend past one job to an entire career, professional network, or reputation.

What Are Historical Sexual-Abuse and Gender-Motivated Violence Claims?

We handle select historical sexual-abuse matters arising from professional, educational, entertainment, and institutional relationships. These cases often involve delayed reporting, trauma, incomplete records, and allegations against someone who controlled a person's employment, training, or future opportunities.

We litigated Roudabush v. Albert Einstein College of Medicine under the New York Adult Survivors Act, defeating a motion to dismiss in Bronx County Supreme Court, and filed Dickerson-Neal v. Combs during the Act's one-year revival window. We also handle select matters under the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which permits certain civil claims for gender-motivated violence depending on the conduct, timing, and evidence involved.

Although the Adult Survivors Act revival window has closed, we continue to litigate matters that were timely filed during that period and evaluate whether other statutes or legal theories apply to historical-abuse claims.

Is a Workplace Relationship a Legal Defense to Harassment or Retaliation?

Many abuse-of-power cases get written off as personal drama: a boss who won't stop asking someone out, a supervisor sending late-night texts, an employee who loses opportunities after ending a relationship with someone in authority. HR treats it as drama instead of what it may be: sexual harassment, quid pro quo harassment, or retaliation.

We handle cases involving employees who rejected a supervisor's advances, ended a relationship with someone in power, and were fired, demoted, isolated, or blamed for it afterward. Whether that adds up to a legal claim depends on how much control the person in authority had over pay, assignments, promotions, or continued employment, and what changed after the employee said no.

We've taken these cases to verdict and settlement. 

• In Grant v. Pexie Enterprises, a Queens County jury returned a unanimous verdict for our client on sexual harassment, assault, battery, and constructive discharge claims, and rejected the counterclaims filed against her. 
• We obtained a $3,375,000 settlement for two employees who alleged sexual harassment and gender discrimination by a healthcare company's CEO, after developing recordings, text messages, and witness evidence ahead of mediation.
• Courts have also sustained our claims against individual harassers, owners, and supervisors directly, including an aiding-and-abetting claim in Girardi v. Ferrari Express, owner liability in Vitanza v. Savta NYC, where the owner knew of the misconduct, and individual supervisor liability in Holohan v. Newmark.

How We Build and Staff High-Profile Cases

High-profile matters carry pressure ordinary employment cases don't: public denials, media attention, crisis consultants, powerful defense counsel, and sometimes smear campaigns. We build these cases through evidence preservation, timeline reconstruction, and review of texts, emails, and messages across platforms like Slack, Teams, Signal, and WhatsApp, with close attention to what changed after the employee rejected advances, ended a relationship, reported misconduct, or requested protection.

• Every high-profile matter is led by a partner or senior litigator, supported by an associate attorney and paralegal, from intake through resolution
• We're based in New York and also maintain offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida, with the resources to fund extended litigation, retain experts, and take the depositions a well-resourced defendant demands
• Every attorney, paralegal, and staff member is trained on how trauma and power imbalance affect memory, communication, and decision-making
• Firm founder William K. Phillips spent time as a vice president at Fieldstone Private Capital Group, a New York investment bank, before founding Phillips & Associates, PLLC. That background shapes how we value claims and negotiate against powerful defendants and their insurers

Before You Report, Resign, Sign, or Go Public

If your matter involves a powerful person, employer, or institution, the first moves matter. Before reporting to HR, resigning, signing a severance or settlement agreement, deleting messages, or speaking publicly, talk to a lawyer.

Early steps worth taking:

• Preserve texts, emails, and messages across every platform, along with voicemails, photos, calendars, and HR communications
• Write down a timeline while events are still fresh
• Save the names of any witnesses
• Keep copies of performance reviews, schedules, pay records, and any complaints
• Hold off on public statements until you understand the legal risk
• Don't sign a severance, settlement, NDA, or arbitration document without legal review

A consultation doesn't commit you to filing a lawsuit. It gets you advice before a decision that could affect your job, privacy, income, and future.