National Employment Law Leadership | Phillips & Associates

How Phillips & Associates Helps Shape Plaintiff-Side Employment Law

Phillips & Associates helps shape plaintiff-side employment law through professional education, published employment-law decisions, litigation training, public workplace-rights education, and the National Plaintiffs’ Summit: Sexual Harassment & Employment Discrimination.

William K. Phillips and Vanessa Keys, Chief Operating Officer of Phillips & Associates, founded the National Plaintiffs’ Summit, with Partner Brittany A. Stevens serving as Co-Chair. The Summit brings together plaintiff-side employment lawyers from across the country to address the strategic, evidentiary, and litigation issues that arise in sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation cases.

National Employment Law Leadership at a Glance

• The Summit. William K. Phillips founded the National Plaintiffs’ Summit: Sexual Harassment & Employment Discrimination with Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Keys. Partner Brittany A. Stevens serves as Co-Chair.
• Built for plaintiff lawyers. Programming addresses case valuation, damages, digital evidence, workplace investigations, mediation, trauma-informed litigation, artificial intelligence, and developing retaliation law.
• CLE accredited. The Summit is accredited for continuing legal education. Available credit depends on the number of program hours attended and on the rules of each attorney’s state.
• Management-side firms analyze the firm's cases. Ogletree Deakins, Proskauer, Kollman Saucier & Jackson, and Bond Schoeneck & King have published analyses of decisions in matters litigated by Phillips & Associates.
• Grounded in litigation. Phillips & Associates has litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases, obtained published decisions cited by other courts, and appeared before more than 110 U.S. District Judges and 70 U.S. Magistrate Judges. 

Education Grounded in Actual Litigation

Employment-law education carries more weight when it comes from cases the teacher is actually handling. Phillips & Associates represents employees only and has never represented an employer. The firm has litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases, and its attorneys have 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.

A program on digital evidence draws from cases involving texts, emails, Slack, Teams, metadata, and electronic discovery. A discussion of retaliation examines cases where an employee’s treatment changed after reporting misconduct. A program on sexual harassment examines what changes when the person accused is a supervisor, executive, owner, physician, or law firm partner who controls the employee’s job.

The firm’s venue counts, industry breakdown, and defense bar record are documented on Our Employment Litigation Record at /why-hire-us/litigation-record/. The published decisions are on Precedents and Decisions at /why-hire-us/precedents-and-decisions/.

What Is the National Plaintiffs’ Summit?

The National Plaintiffs’ Summit was created specifically for attorneys who represent employees. Its programming focuses on the strategic, evidentiary, valuation, damages, and client issues that arise while evaluating, developing, negotiating, and litigating plaintiff-side sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation cases.

Its programming goes beyond doctrine and addresses the questions that arise while evaluating, developing, negotiating, and litigating plaintiff-side employment cases:

• How should a lawyer evaluate what a sexual harassment or discrimination case is worth?
• How do power, retaliation, and proof affect that value?
• How should emotional distress, economic loss, and punitive damages exposure be assessed?
• How can digital evidence and artificial intelligence be used responsibly in plaintiff practice?
• How should lawyers prepare clients for discovery and depositions without re-traumatizing them?
• What makes an employment mediation more effective?
• When do experts and investigators strengthen proof and damages?
• How should tax consequences shape the structure of an employment settlement?

These are not hypothetical descriptions of what the Summit might cover. They are subjects addressed in actual Summit programming.

2026 National Plaintiffs’ Summit Programs

• Identifying High-Value Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Cases: Power, Retaliation, and Proof
• Case valuation, including liability, damages, mitigation, and summary judgment risk
• Using AI in Plaintiff Practice: Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls
• Building the Record Without Breaking the Client: Trauma-Informed Litigation Practice
• Mediator Insider Insights
• Using experts and investigators to strengthen claims and prove damages
• Retaliation claims and developing federal and state law
• Tax issues affecting employees, settlements, and litigation recoveries
• Intake and case-evaluation systems for plaintiff firms

The agenda reflects what plaintiff lawyers confront while building and litigating cases rather than general employment law.

Who Speaks at the Summit?

The Summit brings together plaintiff-side employment lawyers, mediators, investigators, damages and tax professionals, and other practitioners from firms and jurisdictions across the country. Speakers listed for the 2026 Summit included:

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What Phillips & Associates Does at the Summit

Firm attorneys do not attach a name to the conference and step back. They run programming.

At the 2026 Summit, William K. Phillips delivered the opening remarks. Brittany A. Stevens moderated the program on identifying high-value sexual harassment and discrimination cases. Jesse S. Weinstein moderated the case-valuation program. Bryan Arce moderated the session on artificial intelligence in plaintiff practice. Dorina Cela moderated the mediator-insights program. Joshua M. Friedman moderated the program on recent retaliation decisions and state-law developments.

What they teach is what they litigate.

Does the Summit Offer CLE Credit?

Yes. The National Plaintiffs’ Summit: Sexual Harassment & Employment Discrimination is accredited for continuing legal education. The amount of credit available depends on the number of program hours an attorney attends and on the accreditation rules of that attorney’s state, so the exact credit varies by jurisdiction.

Its programs are structured as substantive professional education for practicing lawyers. Current accreditation information is available on the official National Plaintiffs’ Summit website.

The 2027 Summit

The next National Plaintiffs’ Summit: Sexual Harassment & Employment Discrimination is scheduled for March 14 to 16, 2027, at the Andaz Miami Beach in Miami, Florida. Current agendas, speakers, registration, and recordings are available through the official Summit website.

Published Decisions Are Another Form of Leadership

Professional education does not happen only at conferences. Published court decisions can become part of the legal record that judges and lawyers analyze and rely upon in later cases.

A confidential settlement generally resolves an individual dispute without creating precedent. A published appellate or trial-court decision can have significance beyond the matter that produced it.

One example is Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed retaliation and the cat’s paw theory where a nonsupervisory employee’s conduct influences an employer’s decision. The firm’s broader court record includes decisions addressing retaliation, hostile work environment claims, pregnancy discrimination, whistleblower protections, employer liability, and damages.

The Second Circuit’s opinion in Vasquez is available at Justia.

Management-Side Firms Analyze Phillips & Associates Decisions

Management-side employment firms have published analyses of decisions in matters litigated by Phillips & Associates for audiences of employers and employment lawyers.

Ogletree Deakins analyzed the Second Circuit’s decision in Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, which adopted the cat’s paw theory of retaliation and addressed when a nonsupervisory employee’s retaliatory intent can be imputed to an employer. Kollman, Saucier & Jackson discussed Johnson v. STRIVE East Harlem Employment Group, a race-discrimination matter litigated by Phillips & Associates. Bond, Schoeneck & King analyzed Roberts v. Genting New York, LLC, a WARN Act decision involving Phillips & Associates. Proskauer also analyzed the Second Circuit’s decision in Roberts in its Law and the Workplace publication.

These are management-side employment firms analyzing decisions from Phillips & Associates matters for audiences of employers and employment lawyers. Their coverage shows that the decisions have been studied beyond the individual cases in which they were issued.

Not In The Newsletter

Not every workplace problem can be understood through statutes and court decisions alone. Employees also have to navigate workplace relationships, whether and how to report harassment, interactions with HR, retaliation, gender bias, workplace stress, and the career and personal consequences that can follow when something goes wrong at work.

Created by William K. Phillips and hosted by Christina Phillips, Not In The Newsletter brings together attorneys and therapists to examine workplace problems from both legal and human perspectives. Recent episodes have addressed why employees delay reporting sexual harassment, what employees should understand about HR, workplace dating and relationships, gender bias, and why male employees experiencing harassment may be reluctant to speak up.

From Attorney Education to Employee Education

The firm’s educational work also extends beyond the legal profession. William K. Phillips founded HarassmentHelp.org, an employee-facing initiative designed to help people recognize and navigate workplace sexual harassment, understand their rights, and find information about next steps.

Together, the Summit, HarassmentHelp.org, and Not In The Newsletter extend the firm's educational work across the legal profession and the employees the firm serves.

Employment Law Commentary and Media

Phillips & Associates attorneys also contribute to employment-law discussion through legal panels, articles, podcasts, and interviews with national and legal-industry media.

Coverage of the firm’s matters and attorneys is collected on In the Media at /in-the-media/.

Why Does This Matter When Choosing a Law Firm?

Leadership in employment law extends past representing individual clients. It means litigating cases, following and contributing to developing law, exchanging strategy with other plaintiff-side lawyers, teaching, and obtaining decisions that become part of the legal record.

There is a practical version of that question too. Teaching case valuation to experienced plaintiff-side employment lawyers requires a methodology that can withstand professional scrutiny. When a management-side firm such as Ogletree Deakins analyzes a plaintiff firm's decision for its own clients, the decision has significance beyond the individual case. Neither professional education nor published precedent substitutes for results for a particular client. But both can reveal the depth of the litigation practice behind the firm's representation.

How the firm values cases, including the multi-attorney review process behind it, is explained on Business Judgment in Employment Litigation at /why-hire-us/business-judgment/.

Employment law is not something Phillips & Associates talks about. It is what the firm practices, litigates, studies, and teaches.

Speak With an Employment Lawyer

Phillips & Associates represents employees only and has never represented an employer. The firm handles sexual harassment, retaliation, discrimination, whistleblower, hostile work environment, workplace relationship, pregnancy and leave, accommodation, and other career-impacting employment matters.

Speaking with Phillips & Associates does not commit you to filing a lawsuit. Consultations are free and confidential. The firm works on contingency, which means there are no attorney fees unless it recovers compensation for you.