New York Employment Lawyers for Cases Against Large Employers and Powerful Institutions

Phillips & Associates, PLLC is an employee-side employment litigation firm representing employees in career-impacting workplace disputes against Fortune 500 companies, major institutions, executives, founders, CEOs, business owners, law firm partners, physicians, and other powerful decision-makers. We combine the resources of a substantial plaintiff-side practice with partner-led, boutique-style representation, and every matter is handled by a litigation team led by a partner or senior litigator.

A case against a large corporation, financial institution, healthcare system, media company, technology company, global law firm, or professional partnership usually takes more than a demand letter. These employers typically have HR departments, internal investigators, outside counsel, insurance carriers, litigation budgets, and a carefully prepared explanation for what happened. We build our cases to match that.

Why Clients Choose Us

• We represent employees only. We've never represented an employer.
• We've litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases and appeared before more than 110 United States District Judges and more than 70 United States Magistrate Judges, including nearly every currently sitting District Judge in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
• Our record includes federal jury verdicts, appellate victories, published decisions cited by other courts, and a significant federal court victory defeating forced arbitration.
• We've recovered more than $360 million for employees across more than 9,500 employment matters.
• Representative public matters include RBC Capital Markets, JPMorgan Chase, and National Grid.

If you have questions about a workplace harassment, discrimination, or retaliation matter involving a large employer or institution, our award-winning attorneys can help. Call (866) 229-9441 or contact us online for a FREE, confidential consultation.

Built for Employees Facing Large Employers and Powerful Decision-Makers

We're an employment-only litigation firm. We represent employees exclusively and have never represented an employer. That focus matters when an employee is up against an organization that controls HR, internal documents, witnesses, investigators, insurance coverage, communications, and defense counsel from the outset of a dispute.

These matters often involve powerful supervisors, managers, CEOs, founders, executives, law firm partners, physicians, and others with authority over an employee's career. We handle career-impacting disputes involving sexual harassment, workplace relationship harassment, retaliation, discrimination, hostile work environment claims, whistleblower retaliation, pregnancy and parental leave discrimination, medical leave and accommodation disputes, and wrongful termination.

We also handle high-profile and sensitive matters involving celebrities, public figures, media figures, high-net-worth individuals, and private households, where money, influence, publicity, and institutional protection can intensify the pressure on the person coming forward. That experience includes publicly filed matters alleging sexual assault and abuse of power involving Sean Combs, Harvey Weinstein, and Kanye West, as well as confidential matters involving other powerful individuals.

Employees facing sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation are often afraid to speak up. They may worry that HR is protecting the company, that coworkers will be afraid to come forward, or that the employer has already prepared an explanation for what happened. We help employees assess those risks, preserve evidence, understand their options, and decide what to do next before reporting misconduct, resigning, signing an agreement, or filing a claim.

The Employers and Institutions We Take On

We regularly represent employees in matters involving:

• Fortune 500 companies
• Major financial institutions
• Healthcare systems
• National media companies
• Technology companies
• Global law firms
• Publicly traded corporations
• Closely held businesses
• Private equity-backed companies / Wall Street companies
• Founder-led companies
• Professional-services firms
• Physician practices and healthcare groups
• Executives, founders, CEOs, business owners, law firm partners, physicians, and other people in positions of authority
• Employers accused of ignoring complaints, protecting wrongdoers, or retaliating against the employee who spoke up

These cases often involve workplace power dynamics and supervisor sexual harassment. A supervisor, executive, partner, business owner, physician, or other high-value employee may control schedules, assignments, promotions, compensation, references, or continued employment. Employers sometimes protect those individuals because they generate revenue, hold institutional influence, control important relationships, or create reputational risk.

We look at who had authority, how that authority was used, what HR or management knew, how the employer responded to workplace power dynamics, and what changed after the employee complained, rejected advances, requested an accommodation, took leave, or reported misconduct.

Representative Matters Against Employers, Institutions, and Powerful Decision-Makers

We've represented employees in matters involving iconic employers, major institutions, executives, and sophisticated defendants across finance, healthcare, law, media, entertainment, technology, hospitality, education, retail, transportation, and professional services.

Representative Public Matters

• A gender and pregnancy discrimination matter against RBC Capital Markets, the "pregnancy tax" case brought on behalf of a former managing director, covered by Bloomberg Law and HRD America.
• A summary-judgment win against National Grid USA in a race, hostile work environment, and retaliation case in the Eastern District of New York (No. 2:21-cv-6899), where the court allowed the hostile work environment claims to proceed to trial.
• The Second Circuit's decision in Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, a leading retaliation decision that adopted the cat's paw theory and extended it to a nonsupervisory employee.

Significant Victory Defeating Forced Arbitration Against JPMorgan Chase

In Faruque v. JPMorgan Chase (No. 1:24-cv-05734), we opposed the employer's motion to compel arbitration. Partner Michelle Caiola handled the matter. 

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Hon. Orelia E. Merchant, applied the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, denied JPMorgan Chase's motion, voided the arbitration clause as to the employee's sex-based claims, and kept those claims in open court. JPMorgan Chase was represented by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

Arbitration Experience

We've also litigated employment cases in arbitration, including a $325,000 age-discrimination resolution for a technology executive who alleged he was pushed out after being called "middle-aged," told that younger employees were better, and informed that he didn't fit the company's youth culture. We litigated the matter in AAA arbitration before it resolved without a final arbitration award.

Representative Confidential Results

Confidential matters can be described without identifying the client or employer:

• $5 million settlement involving a global law firm. A senior attorney faced gender bias, sexual harassment, and retaliation by a senior partner with authority over her career. We developed the matter through corroborating witness evidence and internal communications, leading to a pre-suit resolution.
• $3,375,000 settlement involving a healthcare-company CEO. Two employees alleged sexual harassment and gender discrimination by the company's chief executive. We developed recordings, text messages, and witness evidence before resolving the matter at mediation.
• $3 million pre-suit resolution involving a major private equity firm. A professional alleged harassment and assault by a senior supervisor. We developed the evidence, evaluated the damages, and negotiated the resolution before litigation.
• $2,100,000 whistleblower-retaliation resolution. A senior risk executive was terminated after reporting regulatory concerns involving the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. We developed and resolved the matter under New York Labor Law Section 740.

Experience Against National Employment Defense Firms

Sophisticated employers are often represented by national management-side employment defense firms. We regularly litigate against firms including Jackson Lewis, Littler Mendelson, Ogletree Deakins, Seyfarth Shaw, Morgan Lewis, and Proskauer Rose.

Employers and defense counsel know which plaintiff firms are prepared to litigate and which are not. They evaluate whether opposing counsel has the experience, resources, evidence strategy, and willingness to pursue discovery, depositions, summary judgment, trial, and appeal if the case doesn't resolve early. That reputation can create leverage long before trial.

How Do Large Employers Defend Against Discrimination and Harassment Claims?

Large employers often respond to discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination claims with prepared explanations: the decision was based on performance, restructuring, policy violations, business judgment, or unrelated timing.

We examine whether those explanations match the evidence: changing explanations, inconsistent discipline, ignored complaints, comparator evidence, timing, witness accounts, HR investigation gaps, prior complaints, and documents that show what really changed after the employee complained, requested an accommodation, took leave, rejected advances, or reported misconduct.

Trial, Arbitration, and Motion Practice Experience

Large employers evaluate more than the facts of a claim. They also evaluate whether the employee's law firm can develop evidence, conduct discovery, take depositions, defeat motions, prove damages, present witnesses, try a case, litigate in arbitration, and pursue an appeal when necessary. We've litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases across federal court, state court, arbitration, agency proceedings, mediation, and trial.

• We obtained a $1.8 million federal jury verdict in Pardovani v. Crown Building Maintenance for a race-based hostile work environment, including $1 million in punitive damages. 
• In Sooroojballie v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, we obtained a jury verdict on race and national-origin hostile-work-environment claims; the Second Circuit affirmed liability and the $150,000 punitive-damages award while reducing the compensatory award, for a total recovery of approximately $400,000.

Many employment cases settle, but settlement value often depends on the employer's assessment of litigation risk. Employers, insurers, and defense firms negotiate differently when they know opposing counsel can continue through discovery, depositions, motion practice, arbitration, trial, and appeal.

How We Build These Cases

Large employers control most of the evidence at the outset: HR files, emails, Slack and Teams messages, personnel records, and their own explanation for what happened. 

We build cases by preserving evidence early, reconstructing the timeline, and looking closely at what changed after the employee complained, requested an accommodation, took leave, rejected advances, or reported misconduct.

• Every client gets a dedicated litigation team, a partner or senior litigator, an associate, and a paralegal, working together in house from intake through trial or appeal
• We fund the work ourselves: experts, investigators, and depositions, without outsourcing
• Firm founder William K. Phillips' background as an investment banker shapes how we value claims and negotiate against sophisticated defendants and their insurers
• We train other plaintiff-side employment lawyers nationally through the National Plaintiffs' Summit on Sexual Harassment and Employment Discrimination, and produce the Not in the Newsletter podcast