July 30, 2024
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Berke-Weiss Law Summer 2024 Personnel Updates

We are pleased to introduce you to the growing team at Berke-Weiss Law! The Firm recently welcomed our newest associate, Melissa Romain. Melissa is an employment attorney who handles all aspects of labor and employment law, including discrimination, sexual harassment, requests for reasonable accommodation, wage and hour cases, workplace investigations, and severance agreements. Melissa graduated from Fordham Law School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University where she majored in Sociology. Melissa has experience drafting and responding to workplace discrimination complaints before various government agencies, including the U.S. EEOC, NYS Division of Human Rights and the NYC Commission of Human Rights, and has litigated employment and commercial disputes in federal and state court.  The Firm and its clients already have benefited from the valuable experience Melissa brings to the team.

In addition to Melissa, the Firm has gained the assistance of two 2024 summer law clerks, Katherine Kennedy and Eileen Farrell. Both Katherine and Eileen are rising 2Ls at Fordham Law School.  Eileen earned a place on the Fordham Law Review after her 1L year. She has an interest in workplace discrimination complaints and employment agreements. Prior to law school, she was a paralegal for two years at Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, DC, working across the firm’s litigation and technology, media, and telecommunications groups. She is a graduate of Georgetown University. Katherine is a graduate of Binghamton University and is interested in employment contracts and salary negotiations, as well as transactional law. Katherine has experience working with commercial litigation, white-collar crime, and real estate law matters. She is a member of Fordham’s Dispute Resolution Society and Sports Law Forum’s Baseball Arbitration Team, and earned a place on the staff of the Fordham Urban Law Journal.

The Berke-Weiss Law team and our clients already have benefited from the knowledge, skill, and hard work of Melissa and our student law clerks.

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Federal Family and Sick Leave for Covid-19 Expanded by New York District Court

August 14, 2020
Leave
Paid Family Leave
Pregnancy Discrimination
FMLA
S.D.N.Y. Judge Paul Oetken invalidated parts of the Department of Labor’s interpretation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in a lawsuit brought by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

The First Recession for Women

August 11, 2020
Gender Discrimination
There is a new feature to the pandemic-induced recession that has decimated employment, manufacturing, child care, education, and just about every other facet of life. It is women, not men who are the most greatly affected by the force of the shutdown.

New York State Human Rights Law Invoked in Sexual Harassment Arbitration Case

August 11, 2020
Sexual Harassment
A split has appeared in how to handle sexual harassment cases with a New York trial judge ruling recently that the state’s Human Rights Law prevents companies and employees from entering arbitration over sexual harassment. This contradicts an earlier ruling in New York’s Southern District where a judge ruled that arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) supersedes New York’s statutory prohibition against arbitration.

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Knowing where to turn in legal matters can make a big difference. Contact our employment lawyers to determine if we can help you.