JUSTIN M. SWARTZ, a partner at Outten & Golden LLP and Co-Chair of its Class Action Practice Group, represents employees in class action wage/hour and discrimination cases, as well as individual discrimination cases and other employment matters. Justin is also Co-Chair of the firm’s Public Interest Committee and a member of its LGBT Employment Rights Practice Group and its Discrimination and Retaliation Practice Group.

Justin currently represents workers in overtime lawsuits against Starbucks, Wal-Mart, JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, Gristede’s, Duane Reade, Tyson Foods, and other major companies. He also represents hundreds of restaurant workers in overtime and tip theft cases against New York City restaurants, low-wage cleaning workers in their claims that large contractors failed to pay them overtime compensation for their work cleaning buildings around Ground Zero in 2001, and entertainers and servers who have worked at Scores nightclubs. Among his recent employment discrimination maters are discrimination claims against companies that have refused to hire minorities with criminal records including an EEOC charge against Madison Square Garden, systemic gender discrimination claims against a major utility company, and several individual race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and national origin discrimination cases. He has represented hundreds of female and African American stock brokers in nationwide discrimination class action lawsuits against the country’s leading brokerage firms, including two recently settled discrimination cases against Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley. He was a member of the trial teams in two class action race discrimination jury trials.

He is active in several bar associations including the New York City Bar Association where he served on the Committee on Civil Rights (2005-2008) and the Committee on Labor and Employment Law (2002-2005). He is a member of the Executive Board of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) New York chapter and is Co-Chair of the NELA national Wage and Hour Committee. In the ABA Section on Labor and Employment Law, he is Co-Chair of the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee and an active member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee.

Justin frequently works with non-profit organizations on public interest matters including successfully representing a formerly incarcerated security guard in a licensing hearing in conjunction with MFY Legal Services and three low wage immigrant women in sexual harassment, assault and battery, and overtime claims as co-counsel to the ACLU Women's Rights Project.* He has co-counseled with, and performed pro bono services for, The Legal Aid Society, South Brooklyn Legal Services, Manhattan Legal Services, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Legal Momentum, NYLAG, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and MFY Legal Services as a volunteer attorney at its legal clinics. Justin is also part of the Lambda Legal Cooperating Attorney Network. While living in Chicago, he volunteered at First Defense Legal Aid, providing emergency representation for recent arrestees and documenting police misconduct. He belongs to the American Constitution Society and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Justin speaks frequently on employment law and ethics. He and has spoken on and co-authored papers on prosecuting employment discrimination claims, representing sexual harassment victims, discrimination claims against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people, a wide variety of wage and hour issues, workplace privacy issues, retaliatory counterclaims by employers, discrimination suits by law-firm partners, stereotyping evidence in discrimination cases, and other employment law and ethics issues.

He graduated from DePaul University School of Law with honors in 1998. He joined Outten & Golden LLP in December 2003 after representing workers as an associate at Goodman & Zuchlewski, LLP, in New York and Stowell & Friedman, Ltd., in Chicago. He is a member of the bars of New York and Illinois.

ARTICLES & TREATISES

• EEOC Committee Reviews Workplace Diversity Issues Justin M. Swartz and Rachel Bien, Labor and Employment Law, Vol. 35, No. 4, Summer 2007
• Partnership Law - Can Law Firm Partners Sue the Firm for Employment Discrimination
  by Wayne N. Outten and Justin M. Swartz
  Law Journal Newsletters' Law Firm Partnership & Benefits Report, Februrary 2004
• Ethics Corner: Third Circuit Vindicates Plaintiff’s Attorney
  by Justin Swartz and Cara Greene
  ABA-LEL August Flash
• Retaliatory Counterclaims: Turning the Tables on the Overly Aggressive Defendant
  by Tarik F. Ajami, Esq., Justin M. Swartz, Esq. and Mark R. Humowiecki, Esq.
• EEOC Committee Reviews Workplace Diversity Issues
  by Justin M. Swartz and Rachel Bien
  Labor and Employment Law, Vol. 35, No. 4, Summer 2007

• Nov 20-22-National Farmworker Law Conference- Federal Court is Where It’s At, and How to Keep It There- Washington, D.C.
• Oct 28-29-American Conference Institute’s 6th Annual Advanced Forum on Wage and Hour Claims and Class Actions Critical Ethical Concerns in the Wage and Hour Case- San Francisco, CA
• Oct 24-National Employment Lawyers Association, New York Chapter– Fall Conference Death of an Exempt Salesman: Compensation of Commission Workers- NYC
• Sep 17-Association of the Bar of the City of New York- Wage and Hour Class Actions under the New York Wage and Hour Law: What is Coming Down the Pike?- NYC
• Sep 11-ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Annual CLE Conference- Ethics Fundamentals for Labor and Employment Lawyers- Denver, CO
• Jun 16-New York County Lawyers Association- Discovery in Employment Cases- NYC
• May 23-New York Legal Assistance Group- Employment Law Ethics- NYC
• May 16-National Employment Lawyers Association, New York Chapter – Representing Employees Under New York State Law Overtime, Minimum Wage, Unpaid Commissions: Individual and Class Claims Under New York Law- Hunter, NY
• Apr 30-American Conference Institute’s 6th National Forum on Expert Strategies for Pursuing and Defending Wage & Hour Claims and Class-The View from the Plaintiffs’ Bar: Current and Future Targets of Wage & Hour Claims - Miami, FL
• Mar 29-National Conference on Equal Opportunity Law; ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law- Equal Employment Opportunity Committee-Ethics for the Employment Lawyer- Tucson, AZ
• Feb 1-New York State Bar Association- Employee Privacy Rights- NYC

• Nov 30-Association of the Bar of the City of New York- Employment Law Essentials: What New York Practitioners Need to Know About Leaves of Absence, Sexual Orientation Discrimination, Overtime, Retaliation & More ...- NYC
• Nov 14-Community Legal Resource Network of CUNY School of Law and the National Lawyers Guild- Collective Actions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act- NYC
• Nov 8-ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Annual CLE Conference- Employment Discrimination Law and its Application to Common Workplace Issues - Title VII, ADEA, ADA, and Harassmen- Philadelphia, PA
• Oct 19-20-National Employment Lawyers Association Fall Seminar - Representing Workers in Individual & Collective Actions under the FLSA Avoiding Procedural Pitfalls- New Orleans, LA
• Oct 12-Practicing Law Institute - 36th Annual Institute on Employment Law-Wage and Hour Issues- NYC
• Aug 11-ABA Annual Meeting – Labor and Employment Law Section-Ex Parte Contact with Class Members, Putative Class Members, and Members of an EEOC Enforcement Action- NYC
• Jun 28-National Employment Lawyers Association - 2007 Eighteenth Annual Convention Gender Stereotypes: What Constitutes Evidence Of Discrimination – with a focus on cases involving gay, lesbian, and transgendered plaintiffs- NYC
• Jun 18-Practicing Law Institute - LITIGATING EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS 2007- Litigating Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues: Developments from Coast to Coast- NYC
• Jun 13-Association of the Bar of the City of New York- Exemptions To Federal And State Wage And Hour Laws- NYC
• Apr 24-American Conference Institute - 4th National Forum on Wage & Hour Claims & Class Actions-Mediating Wage and Hour Cases-NYC
• Mar 8-New York State Bar Association - Employment Law For the General Practitioner and Corporate Counselor (Program Chair)-Wage and Hour Overview- NYC

• Oct 18-Association of the Bar of the City of New York- Employment Law Essentials: What New York Practitioners Need To Know About Leaves Of Absence, Sexual Orientation Discrimination, Overtime, Retaliation & More…- NYC
• Sep 26-27-National Business Institute- Wage and Hour Law: Answers to Everyday Questions- Albany, NY; Poughkeepsie, NY
• Sep 18-Non-Profit Employment Law Task Force - New York Legal Assistance Group- Discovery in Class and Collective Action Wage and Hour Litigation- NYC
• Jun 25-National Employment Lawyers Association - 2006 Seventeenth Annual Convention- Use of Technology in the Small Law Office- San Francisco, CA
• Mar 31-Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law - Spring 2006 Labor and Employment Law Seminar-Title VII Law – Recent Developments- NYC
• Mar 23-National Conference on Equal Opportunity Law; ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law-Equal Employment Opportunity Committee-Expanding the Law: Claims Based on Sexual Stereotyping and Gender Non-Conformity- La Jolla, CA
• Mar 22-New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section, Fall Meeting- Overtime Payment Violations: The Practicalities of Enforcement, Correcting Errors and Recordkeeping – Plenary Session- Longboat Key, FL
• Mar 18-ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law – Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee Midwinter Meeting Conflicts of Interest Subcommittee Report- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
• Mar 17-ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law – Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee Midwinter Meeting Ex Parte Communication Issues for Labor and Employment Counsel- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

• Nov 1-American Constitution Society and National Employment Lawyers Association / NY- Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Workplace Rights (Program Chair)- NYC
• Oct 24-New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section, Fall Meeting- Overtime Payment Violations: The Practicalities of Enforcement, Correcting Errors and Recordkeeping- Longboat Key, FL
• Oct 18-New York Legal Assistance Group, Employment Law Taskforce Training- Evaluation and Screening of Employment Cases- NYC
• Sep 15-Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Committee on Labor and Employment Law- Employment Law in New York: What You Need to Know About Protected Classes, Leaves of Absence, Retaliation & More...- NYC
• Aug 6-ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law- The Basics: Ethical Issues in Labor and Employment Law- Chicago, IL
• Jun 15-New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section- Ethics in Employment Litigation- Rochester, NY
• Jun 10-New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section- Ethics in Employment Litigation Discovery- NYC
• Feb 9-Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Committee on Labor and Employment Law- Litigating Wage & Hour Cases in New York- NYC
• Jan 28-New York State Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Section- Multiple Client Representation- NYC
• Jan 16-ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law- Ethical Issues in Mediation- Miami, FL
• Jan 15-ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law- Conflicts of Interest in Class Actions- Miami, FL