Employment Lawyers for Cases Against Large Employers and Powerful Institutions

Phillips & Associates is a Chambers-ranked, employee-side employment litigation firm that represents 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. The firm combines the resources of a substantial plaintiff-side employment practice with partner-led, boutique-style representation. Every matter is handled by a litigation team led by a partner or senior litigator, backed by more than 200 years of combined employment law experience and approximately 2,000 litigated employment cases.

Employment cases are not all the same. A case against a large corporation, financial institution, healthcare system, media company, technology company, global law firm, publicly traded corporation, closely held business, founder-led company, physician practice, or professional partnership often requires more than a demand letter. These employers and decision-makers usually have HR departments, internal investigators, outside counsel, insurance carriers, litigation budgets, reputation concerns, and carefully prepared explanations for what happened.

Phillips & Associates is built to handle those cases.

At a Glance

• Phillips & Associates represents employees only and has never represented employers.
• Every client is assigned a dedicated litigation team led by a partner or senior litigator, supported by an associate attorney and paralegal.
• The firm has 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.
• Phillips & Associates has obtained federal jury verdicts, appellate victories, published decisions cited by other courts, a significant federal court victory defeating forced arbitration, and results in matters litigated through arbitration.
• The firm has recovered more than $360 million for employees across more than 9,500 employment matters.
• Representative public matters have involved RBC Capital Markets, JPMorgan Chase, National Grid, and other major employers and institutions.
• Phillips & Associates is ranked by Chambers and Partners for Labor and Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs in New York and is recognized by Best Lawyers and Best Law Firms.

Built for Employees Facing Large Employers and Powerful Decision-Makers

Phillips & Associates is an employment-only litigation firm that represents employees exclusively and has never represented employers. 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, business owners, and others with authority over an employee’s career. The firm handles 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.

The firm also handles 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 witnesses or coworkers will be afraid to come forward, or that the employer has already prepared an explanation for what happened. Many employees seek advice before reporting misconduct, resigning, signing an agreement, or filing a claim.

Phillips & Associates helps employees assess those risks, preserve evidence, understand their options, and decide what to do next.

The Employers and Institutions We Take On

Phillips & Associates regularly represents 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
• 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.

Phillips & Associates examines who had authority, how that authority was used, what HR or management knew, how the employer responded, and what changed after the employee complained, rejected advances, requested an accommodation, took leave, or reported misconduct. Learn more on our Workplace Power Dynamics page.

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

Phillips & Associates has 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

Representative public matters include:

• 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, discussed further on our Precedents and Decisions page.

Significant Victory Defeating Forced Arbitration Against JPMorgan Chase

In Faruque v. JPMorgan Chase, No. 1:24-cv-05734, Phillips & Associates opposed the employer’s motion to compel arbitration. Partner Michelle Caiola handles the matter for Phillips & Associates. 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

The firm also has experience litigating employment cases in arbitration:

• A $325,000 age-discrimination resolution involving a technology executive at a major technology company. The executive alleged that he was pushed out after being warned about being a “middle-aged” man, hearing executives say younger employees were better, and being told that he did not fit the company’s youth culture. Phillips & Associates litigated the matter in AAA arbitration before it resolved without a final arbitration award.

Representative Confidential Results

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

• $5,000,000 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. Phillips & Associates 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. Phillips & Associates developed recordings, text messages, and witness evidence before resolving the matter at mediation.
• $3,000,000 pre-suit resolution involving a major private equity firm. A professional alleged harassment and assault by a senior supervisor. Phillips & Associates 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 United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Phillips & Associates developed and resolved the matter under New York Labor Law Section 740.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case depends on its own facts, evidence, law, damages, deadlines, and procedural posture. Additional outcomes appear on our Case Results and Precedents and Decisions pages.

Experience Against National Employment Defense Firms

Sophisticated employers are often represented by national management-side employment defense firms. Phillips & Associates regularly litigates against these 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 does not resolve early. That reputation can create leverage long before trial.

How Sophisticated Employers Often Defend Employment Claims

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

Phillips & Associates examines whether those explanations match the evidence. The firm looks for 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. Phillips & Associates has litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases and has experience in federal court, state court, arbitration, agency proceedings, mediation, motion practice, trial, and appeal.

• Phillips & Associates 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, Phillips & Associates 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 to $250,000, resulting in a total recovery of approximately $400,000.
• In Faruque v. JPMorgan Chase, Phillips & Associates obtained a significant federal court victory defeating forced arbitration under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act.
• Phillips & Associates represented a technology executive in an age-discrimination matter involving a major technology company. The executive alleged that he was pushed out after comments about being “middle-aged” and not fitting the company’s youth culture. The case proceeded in AAA arbitration and resolved for $325,000 before a final arbitration award.
• Phillips & Associates defeated summary judgment against National Grid USA in the Eastern District of New York, No. 2:21-cv-6899, preserving the hostile-work-environment claims for trial.
• In Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, Phillips & Associates obtained a Second Circuit decision adopting the cat’s paw theory of retaliation and extending it to misconduct by a nonsupervisory employee.

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.

Litigation Record

Phillips & Associates has handled more than 9,500 employment matters, litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases, and recovered more than $360 million for employees. The firm has 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.

The firm’s record includes federal jury verdicts, appellate victories, published employment-law decisions cited by other courts, a significant federal court victory defeating forced arbitration in Faruque v. JPMorgan Chase, and results in employment matters litigated through arbitration. The firm’s attorneys are regularly featured as commentators in Law360, and the firm’s rankings and honors appear on our Awards and Recognition page.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. More detail is available on our Litigation Record page.

How We Build Cases Against Sophisticated Employers

Large employers often control much of the evidence at the beginning of a case, including HR files, internal complaints, personnel records, policies, emails, performance reviews, investigation materials, Slack and Teams messages, payroll records, and the employer’s stated reasons for its decisions.

Phillips & Associates develops cases through evidence preservation, timeline reconstruction, witness analysis, comparator evidence, HR-response review, damages evaluation, employer-structure research, and litigation strategy. The firm looks at what happened before and after the employee complained, requested an accommodation, became pregnant, took leave, rejected advances, reported discrimination, or engaged in whistleblower activity. Timing matters, and so do documents, witnesses, changing explanations, and how the employer treated other employees. You can read more about what proof tends to decide these cases on our Evidence in Employment Cases page.

Dedicated Litigation Teams

No employee should have to face a sophisticated employer with a fragmented legal team. Every Phillips & Associates client is assigned a dedicated litigation team led by a partner or senior litigator, supported by an associate attorney and paralegal. Many of the firm’s partners and senior attorneys have worked together for more than a decade, giving clients continuity, institutional knowledge, and coordinated strategy from intake through negotiation, mediation, discovery, arbitration, trial, or appeal.

The firm’s attorneys, paralegals, and support staff work together in the office, allowing the litigation team to collaborate directly on evidence, strategy, damages, witness preparation, and case valuation. The firm also maintains the financial capacity these cases demand, including the ability to retain experts, work with investigators, and take the depositions necessary to develop the case, with the work handled in house rather than outsourced. You can learn more about how these teams are structured on our Dedicated Litigation Team Model page, and the attorneys who lead these teams are profiled on our attorney pages.

Trauma-Informed Representation Across the Firm

All Phillips & Associates attorneys, paralegals, and support staff receive trauma-informed training focused on how harassment, retaliation, coercion, and workplace power can affect memory, communication, delayed reporting, and decision-making. The training helps the firm communicate clearly, avoid unnecessary re-traumatization, prepare clients for interviews, mediation, depositions, and litigation, and evaluate each matter in the full context of what the employee experienced. Trauma-informed representation does not change the legal standards or evidence required. It helps the legal team understand how people may respond when their job, income, reputation, and future are controlled by someone with power.

How Large Employers, Insurers, and Defense Lawyers Evaluate Employment Claims

Employment cases against sophisticated employers often involve more than legal issues. They may involve leverage, compensation, reputation, public exposure, internal politics, executive protection, insurance coverage, negotiation strategy, and risk tolerance.

Before founding Phillips & Associates, William K. Phillips served as a vice president at Fieldstone Private Capital Group, a New York investment bank, where he worked on international mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings. That experience informs how the firm values claims, assesses risk, approaches negotiation, and anticipates how employers, insurers, and defense counsel evaluate litigation exposure. William K. Phillips is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Leadership in Employment Law Education

Phillips & Associates also contributes to the broader employment-law community by teaching and training other plaintiff-side employment lawyers on case development, evidence, damages, mediation, litigation strategy, and trauma-informed representation. William K. Phillips founded the National Plaintiffs’ Summit on Sexual Harassment and Employment Discrimination, which brings together attorneys from across the country to share practical strategies for handling serious workplace cases. The firm also produces the Not in the Newsletter podcast, created to help employees better understand workplace harassment, workplace relationship harassment, retaliation, discrimination, power dynamics, and the legal issues companies often do not explain.

Frequently Asked Questions About Taking on a Large Employer

Can an Employee Really Win Against a Company With Far More Money and Lawyers?

Yes. A large employer’s resources do not determine whether the employee has a valid claim. The outcome depends on the facts, evidence, applicable law, damages, credibility, and whether the employee’s lawyers have the experience and resources to continue through discovery, motion practice, trial, or appeal. Phillips & Associates has obtained seven-figure results against global law firms, financial institutions, healthcare companies, and private equity firms, as well as a $1.8 million federal jury verdict in Pardovani v. Crown Building Maintenance.

Does the Size of the Employer Affect What a Case Is Worth?

It can affect the practical evaluation, but employer size does not determine the value of a claim. Case value generally depends on liability, evidence, lost income, emotional harm, career impact, available remedies, credibility, applicable damages caps, and the employer’s defenses. Insurance coverage, financial resources, reputational exposure, and the amount of available internal documentation may also affect negotiation and collection strategy.

What if the Person Who Harmed Me Is a Senior Executive the Company Protects?

Cases involving CEOs, founders, partners, and rainmakers are a core focus of the firm’s practice. Companies sometimes shield high-value individuals because they generate revenue or control client relationships, and that protection itself becomes evidence of how the organization responded. The firm’s most significant confidential results, including the $5,000,000 global law firm settlement and the $3,375,000 healthcare CEO matter, involved exactly this dynamic.

The Company Offered Me a Severance Agreement. Should I Sign It?

Not before understanding what you are giving up. Severance agreements typically include a release of legal claims and may also contain confidentiality, nondisparagement, cooperation, arbitration, or restrictive-covenant provisions. An employment lawyer can evaluate the agreement, identify potential claims, explain the deadline, and assess whether negotiation is appropriate before you sign.

What if My Employer Says I Have to Arbitrate?

Arbitration does not automatically mean there is no case, and some claims cannot be forced into arbitration at all. In Faruque v. JPMorgan Chase, the federal court applied the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act and refused to send the employee’s sex-based claims to arbitration. Where arbitration does apply, the firm litigates there too, as it did in the $325,000 technology-executive matter.

Can I Pursue a Claim While I Still Work for the Company?

Potentially. Many employees seek legal advice while still employed so they can understand their rights before reporting misconduct, responding to HR, requesting protection, or deciding whether to remain in the job. Retaliation for protected activity may be unlawful, but employees should understand the legal and practical risks before acting. What the employer does after learning about a complaint may become important evidence.

Speak With Phillips & Associates Before Taking on a Powerful Employer

If you are facing discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, whistleblower retaliation, leave or accommodation retaliation, or another workplace dispute involving a large employer, major institution, executive, founder, CEO, business owner, law firm partner, physician, or sophisticated defense counsel, speak with Phillips & Associates before deciding what to do next. You can reach the firm through our contact page.

A consultation does not mean you are filing a lawsuit. It means you are getting advice before making a decision that may affect your job, income, benefits, reputation, privacy, and future. Consultations are free and confidential, and the firm works on contingency, which means there are no attorney fees unless the firm recovers for you.

Free Consultation. No Attorney Fees Unless We Recover.

Phone: 866-229-9441

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.