Jeff Douglas is a partner and co-chair of the Firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group. Jeff has extensive experience representing clients in a wide-range of employment and traditional labor matters in New York, New Jersey, and nationwide. Jeff serves as a strategic partner with employers, providing comprehensive labor and employment advice that ensures legal compliance in a manner that accounts for business growth. Jeff is also an experienced litigator who represents clients in all employment-related disputes.
Jeff provides effective advice and counsel to employers on day-to-day personnel decisions that directly impact clients’ ability to conduct business. He partners with employers in the strategic design and implementation of personnel policies including handbooks, employment agreements, wage and hour audits, diversity and inclusion programs and trainings, and routinely conducts workplace investigations. Additionally, Jeff assists clients by conducting due diligence for business transactions to identify and evaluate any potential labor and workforce liability.
As a litigator, Jeff represents clients in a variety of employment disputes including, single-plaintiff, class and collective wage and hour cases, employment discrimination cases in court and before administrative agencies, and ERISA delinquent contribution matters. He employs effective and creative strategies early in litigation to attempt to leverage favorable client outcomes.
Jeff has extensive experience representing private and public sector employers with unionized workforces. He conducts collective bargaining, practices before administrative agencies, represents clients in arbitration proceedings, and provides advice to assist employers navigate a unionized workforce and foster positive labor relations.
Jeff is regularly engaged to conduct lectures on issues involving diversity and inclusion with a focus on sexual harassment, religious discrimination and accommodation. He has also written and lectured extensively about the development of the disparate impact theory of discrimination in both American and European Union law.
Prior to joining the Firm, Jeff was a partner in a national labor and employment firm. A graduate of the Fordham University School of Law, Jeff was awarded the Addison M. Metcalf Labor Law Prize. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations where he concentrated his studies in collective bargaining, labor and employment law, and labor history.
Jeff has been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers Rising Stars– New York Metro Edition for the years 2021-2022.
» Defended an international hotel management company in a complex wage and hour collective action in which plaintiffs sought over $3.1 million in unpaid overtime. Achieved a resolution prior to depositions for a significantly reduced settlement.
» Represented a home health care agency in a pregnancy discrimination action in which an employee alleged the employer’s implementation and application of a neutral work rule constituted pregnancy discrimination. The New York State Division of Human Rights dismissed the complaint.
» Defended several large residential apartment management companies in collective action wage and hour litigations and achieved significantly reduced settlements prior to commencing formal discovery.
» Obtained dismissal of unfair labor practice charges filed against a residential apartment management company after the union alleged the employer stacked the unit then discharged employees after an election.
» Defended employers in the construction, supermarket and nursing home industries in ERISA delinquent contribution actions and negotiated significantly reduced settlements for alleged contributions owed.
» Negotiated multiple collective bargaining agreements for companies that produced employer flexibility and competitive advantages in economic terms and conditions.
» Conducted due diligence for private equity firm to analyze potential labor and employment liabilities as part of $2.9 billion acquisition.