How to Choose a Sexual Harassment Lawyer in New York

A strong sexual harassment lawyer should have substantial employment-law experience, regularly represent employees, and be able to show a meaningful litigation record. 

Verify four things before you hire. Has the firm ever represented an employer? Can it point to published decisions and named results? Who will actually handle your case? Has it litigated challenges to forced arbitration clauses?

Key Takeaways

• Choose a firm that represents employees regularly and has substantial employment-law experience
• Verify the litigation record: published decisions, federal court appearances, and named results with named attorneys
• New York law protects employees even when harassment is not severe or pervasive
• Federal law may allow employees alleging sexual harassment or sexual assault to elect not to enforce certain pre-dispute arbitration agreements
• Consultations are free and confidential, and speaking with a lawyer does not commit you to filing anything

Choosing a sexual harassment attorney is different from choosing a lawyer for most other legal problems. The facts are personal, the person responsible often controls your paycheck, and how your lawyer handles the first weeks can shape both your claim and your privacy.

A Note From William K. Phillips

“I have spent my career representing people who were harassed by someone with authority over their work. A relationship involving a boss and subordinate can raise serious concerns when one person controls the other's pay, assignments, advancement, or job security. The law looks closely at that authority, whether the conduct was truly welcome, and what happened when the employee set boundaries or ended the relationship.

Only about two out of ten people who experience sexual harassment ever report it. The other eight are afraid, or they are not sure their rights were violated at all. If you are one of the eight, you do not need to be sure before you call. Figuring that out is what the consultation is for.”

Does the Firm Represent Employees Only?

This question matters more in harassment cases than almost anywhere else. Firms that also defend employers have spent part of their careers building the arguments used against harassment victims. They have defended the executive, questioned the accuser's credibility, and drafted the policies employers point to in court. A firm that represents employees exclusively has spent its entire history on your side of those arguments.

We have represented employees only since our founding in 2011. We have never represented an employer, a corporation, or management in any matter, and we practice employment law exclusively. We have never handled personal injury, medical malpractice, family law, criminal law, real estate, or general litigation.

Does the Firm Understand Workplace Power Dynamics?

Sexual harassment often involves workplace power, although the legal analysis depends on the nature, severity, and context of the conduct. The person responsible may control pay, promotions, schedules, assignments, or continued employment, and that control can make the conduct hard to report and hard to escape. A lawyer who understands those dynamics builds a different case than one who treats harassment as a collection of isolated incidents.

We concentrate on power-based claims. Our caseload includes harassment by supervisors, managers, executives, CEOs, founders, physicians, business owners, law firm partners, and public figures including celebrities. We regularly handle workplace relationship harassment, coercive workplace relationships, retaliation after an employee rejects advances, and retaliation after an employee ends a relationship with a boss.

Our attorneys recognize how this conduct actually unfolds because they have litigated it in every form, including:

• A boss who repeatedly asks an employee out after being turned down
• Comments about an employee's body or appearance framed as compliments
• Late-night texts and personal messages from a supervisor that have nothing to do with work
• A supervisor who shares their own marriage or relationship problems to create false intimacy
• Grooming patterns that move from favoritism to isolation to boundary testing to dependency
• Romantic or sexual relationships with coworkers or bosses that turn into pressure, coercion, or workplace consequences
• Better shifts, assignments, or opportunities tied to personal attention, and worse treatment after a rejection or a breakup

Building these cases turns on conduct evidence: comments tied to what happened, text messages, emails, phone records, witness accounts, how HR responded, and patterns that affected more than one employee.

What These Cases Look Like in Real Life

Every situation below comes from our own case files, with identifying details removed.

• A senior associate at a global law firm was placed on the partner track after a strong performance review. A managing partner then began harassing her, and she was discharged within six months of that review. We drafted the complaint and led the mediation and settlement negotiations. The matter resolved for $2,000,000.
• A vice president at a healthcare company ended a consensual relationship with a senior executive who had authority over her job security and assignments. He responded with a sustained campaign of unwanted advances, solicitation, unwanted touching, and sexually charged comments, and he retaliated when she continued to rebuff him. The matter resolved at pre-suit mediation for $2,375,000.
• A banking employee ended a relationship with a senior banking executive. She was then denied a bonus and issued a negative performance review. The matter led to the termination of the harasser and resolved for $750,000 through private mediation, led by Max Bracero.
• An arts dealer worked as a consultant for the owner of several successful businesses and the founder of an affiliated nonprofit. He subjected her to sexual assault and gender-motivated violence, and her claims included sex trafficking. Led by Michelle Caiola, the matter resolved for $2,150,000 after months of contentious litigation, including discovery, motion practice, and depositions.

See more of our results.

Is the Firm Trauma-Informed?

Recounting harassment is difficult, and a legal process that ignores that reality loses evidence and loses clients. The EEOC's Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace found that roughly three out of four employees who experience harassment never raise it with their employer. Ask whether the firm trains its people on working with clients who have experienced harassment, coercion, or delayed reporting. Delayed reporting in particular is common in harassment cases, and a firm that understands why will present it accurately rather than treating it as a weakness.

All of our attorneys and staff receive trauma-informed training. That training shapes how we conduct intake interviews, how we prepare clients for depositions, and how we present a client's story to opposing counsel and to a court.

Can the Firm Prove Its Litigation Record?

Employers and their insurers do not respond to advertising. They respond to risk. Before an employer decides how to handle a harassment claim, its defense counsel researches the employee's lawyer. Three parts of a firm's record can be verified independently.

• Published decisions. We litigated Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit extended cat's paw liability to retaliation driven by nonsupervisory employees. Retaliation claims often follow harassment reports, and this decision now governs those claims across New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.
• Federal court experience. We have appeared before more than 110 United States District Judges and more than 70 United States Magistrate Judges. We have litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases.
• Experience against major defense firms. Employers accused of harassment hire a known circle of management-side firms. We have litigated against more than 550 distinct management-side defense firms, including Jackson Lewis, Littler Mendelson, Ogletree Deakins, Seyfarth Shaw, Morgan Lewis, and Proskauer Rose.

Why Litigation Experience Protects Your Privacy

We combine the resources of a substantial plaintiff-side employment firm with the partner-led attention of a focused litigation boutique. As a Chambers-ranked New York firm, we represent employees only in high-stakes sexual harassment, retaliation, discrimination, whistleblower, and abuse-of-power cases involving supervisors, executives, founders, business owners, law firm partners, physicians, public figures, major corporations, and other sophisticated employers.

Our litigation record, published decisions, and recognition from Best Lawyers and Best Law Firms help create leverage in confidential negotiations and, when necessary, in court. A demonstrated willingness to litigate can strengthen an employee's position in negotiations when the employer knows the employee's lawyers are prepared to take the case through discovery, depositions, summary judgment, trial, and appeal.

We evaluate every matter as if litigation may become necessary. As a result, many claims resolve confidentially before a complaint is filed. Clients can discuss with counsel whether pre-suit resolution or available confidentiality terms may limit public disclosure.

What If You Signed an Arbitration Agreement?

Many employers require new hires to sign agreements sending workplace disputes to private arbitration, a forum that tends to favor employers. Since 2022, the federal Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act may allow an employee alleging sexual harassment or sexual assault to elect not to enforce a pre-dispute arbitration agreement for a case relating to that dispute. Employers still file motions to enforce these agreements, and defeating those motions takes a lawyer who has actually litigated the issue.

In Faruque v. JPMorgan Chase, partner Michelle Caiola defeated JPMorgan Chase's motion to compel arbitration in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, opposite defense counsel from Morgan Lewis. The court applied the federal Act to the plaintiff's sex-based claims under the New York City Human Rights Law, voided the arbitration clause, and kept the case in public court. Ask any firm you are considering whether it has litigated an arbitration clause challenge, because the answer may affect whether your case can proceed in court.

Who Will Actually Handle Your Case?

In a harassment case you will share private, sometimes painful details. You are entitled to know exactly who will hear them. Ask three questions before signing a retainer.

• Will a dedicated team of attorneys handle my case from evaluation through resolution?
• Does the firm use independent contractors, in-house or overseas, for any part of its casework?
• Do the firm's attorneys work together in person, or is the firm a distributed network?

Every client works with a dedicated litigation team that typically includes a partner or senior litigator, an associate attorney, and a paralegal. The team that evaluates the case is the team that litigates it. We do not use independent contractors, in-house or overseas. Every part of a client's case is handled by our own attorneys, paralegals, and staff, which matters when the file contains sensitive personal information.

We also operate fully in office. Attorneys, paralegals, and staff work together in person every day, which has become increasingly rare in the legal industry. The team handling a harassment case discusses strategy face to face in real time, and a client's matter benefits from the collective judgment of the full team. Our attorneys bring more than 200 years of combined employment law experience, and many partners have litigated cases together for more than a decade.

What Do the Firm's Results and Clients Say?

Results should be specific, and reviews should be numerous enough to mean something. Our record includes:

• More than $360 million recovered for employees, all from employment law matters
• More than $60 million recovered in 2025 alone
• More than 9,500 employment matters handled
• Recognized in Chambers USA 2026, Best Lawyers 2026, and Best Law Firms 2026
• 15 attorneys named to Super Lawyers® and 13 members of the Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum
• More than 900 client reviews with a 4.8 average rating

The Attorneys Handling These Cases

• William K. Phillips, our founder and Managing Partner, is known for representing victims of workplace sexual harassment and of retaliation that follows a workplace relationship with a boss. He writes regularly about workplace relationships and power dynamics, founded the National Plaintiffs' Summit on Sexual Harassment and Employment Discrimination, and founded HarassmentHelp.org, a national informational resource for employees who are unsure whether what they're experiencing is harassment.
• Our partners, including Michelle Caiola, Brittany A. Stevens, and Jesse S. Weinstein, litigate these cases directly. The attorney who leads your matter is a named, verifiable litigator, not an intake department.

A Checklist You Can Use With Any Firm

Ask any sexual harassment firm in New York these questions. Here's how we answer them.

Questions to Ask at Your Free Consultation

A good consultation runs in both directions. The lawyer evaluates your case, and you evaluate the lawyer. Ask these directly.

• Have you ever represented an employer in any matter?
• Which attorney will lead my case, and can I see their record?
• Does any part of your casework go to independent contractors, in-house or overseas?
• Have you litigated and won an arbitration clause challenge?
• What results have you obtained in cases like mine?
• What deadlines apply to my claims, and which are closest?

What to Bring to Your Consultation

You do not need a complete file to have a productive first conversation, and you should never gather evidence in a way that puts your safety or your job at risk. If you have any of the following, bring them.

• Texts, emails, chat messages, or screenshots connected to the conduct
• A simple timeline with dates, locations, and what happened
• Performance reviews from before and after you rejected advances or reported
• Names of coworkers who saw the conduct or experienced it themselves
• Copies of any HR complaint and the employer's response
• Your employment agreement or handbook, including any arbitration clause

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Is the Best Sexual Harassment Lawyer in New York?

No single lawyer is objectively the best for every situation. The strongest choice is a firm that represents employees only, concentrates on haras\][]ment and workplace power dynamics, trains its people in trauma-informed representation, and holds a verifiable litigation record.

Can My Sexual Harassment Case Stay Confidential?

Many harassment claims resolve confidentially through pre-suit negotiation. New York law generally requires confidentiality in a harassment settlement to reflect the employee's preference. Whether a matter can remain confidential depends on the facts, the forum, the employer's response, and the terms of any resolution.

How Much Does a Sexual Harassment Lawyer Cost in New York?

Most plaintiff-side firms, including Phillips & Associates, PLLC, offer free consultations and work on contingency. You pay no fee unless the firm recovers compensation for you. The consultation is also confidential, so speaking with a lawyer does not commit you to filing a complaint or a lawsuit.

Call For a Free Consultation: (866) 229-9441

If you are experiencing harassment at work, or you faced retaliation after reporting it or rejecting someone's advances, an early and confidential consultation can protect both your claim and your privacy. Phillips & Associates, PLLC offers free consultations and handles cases on contingency.

Call (866) 229-9441 or submit a consultation request online to speak with an attorney.