Practice Areas
What I handle for New York and New Jersey employees.
Discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination — at Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike.
Fingerhut Law represents New York and New Jersey employees in cases involving workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. The practice has litigated on behalf of workers in financial services, tech startups, advertising and marketing, film and media, hospitality, construction, real estate, fashion and retail, and professional services. The categories below are the most common — they are not exhaustive. If your situation does not fit neatly within them, that does not mean you do not have a claim. Contact the firm for a free, confidential consultation.
-
Sexual Harassment
When power is misused at work.
Sexual harassment, propositions, unwanted touching, retaliation for refusing advances, and forced-out cases. New York's NYC Human Rights Law and Adult Survivor Act offer some of the strongest protections in the country.
Learn more → -
Pregnancy Discrimination
More protection during pregnancy, not less.
Demotions, harassment, denied accommodations, terminations because of pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, or IVF — plus retaliation for requesting maternity leave or pumping accommodations.
Learn more → -
Race Discrimination
Federal, state, and NYC HRL protections.
Slurs, denied promotions, pay disparities, pretextual write-ups, and terminations that mask racial animus. Includes the firm's $2 million construction-worker settlement.
Learn more → -
Workplace Sexual Assault
Civil claims for sexual assault and related misconduct at work.
Civil claims arising from forcible touching, sexual assault, and other Penal Law article 130 offenses connected to work — under the New York City and State Human Rights Laws, Title VII, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and related common-law theories.
Learn more → -
Gender-Motivated Violence Act
NYC's civil cause of action for survivors of gender-motivated violence — including workplace sexual assault.
Civil claims under NYC's Gender-Motivated Violence Act, Admin. Code § 10-1101 et seq. The 2022 lookback amendment revived many otherwise time-barred claims, including workplace sexual assault that occurred years before.
Learn more → -
Hostile Work Environment
Conduct severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of work.
Under the NYC Human Rights Law, a single sufficiently severe incident — or a pattern of conduct beyond a 'petty slight' — is enough.
Learn more → -
Wrongful Termination
Not every firing is legal.
Terminations that violate anti-discrimination, anti-retaliation, leave, or whistleblower statutes. If something about your firing does not feel right, talk to an attorney before signing anything.
Learn more → -
Whistleblower Retaliation
Punished for reporting fraud, illegal conduct, or unsafe practices.
Termination, demotion, or other adverse action against employees who report what they reasonably believe is unlawful conduct, fraud, securities violations, or workplace safety hazards. New York's revised whistleblower law (effective 2022) substantially broadened protections.
Learn more → -
LGBTQ+ Workplace Discrimination
Protections that meaningfully exceed federal law.
Harassment, discrimination, denied benefits, and terminations of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary employees. The NYC Human Rights Law goes well beyond Title VII as interpreted in Bostock.
Learn more → -
Religious Discrimination
Faith-based discrimination, harassment, and hostile work environments.
Disparate treatment, harassment, or hostile work environments based on religion — including hostility from supervisors or coworkers about religious belief, practice, or affiliation.
Learn more → -
Disability Discrimination & Failure to Accommodate
When an accommodation request became a termination.
Workers with physical disabilities, mental health conditions, chronic illnesses, and pregnancy-related conditions who were denied reasonable accommodations, harassed, or terminated under pretextual 'performance' rationales after disclosure.
Learn more → -
Retaliation
Punished for raising your hand? That is protected activity.
Fired, demoted, transferred, isolated, or written up for complaining about discrimination, cooperating with HR, filing an agency charge, reporting wage theft, or requesting an accommodation.
Learn more → -
Paid Family Leave Violations
Often the visible symptom of a much larger case.
A PFL violation rarely happens in isolation — it is often a symptom of pregnancy discrimination, disability discrimination, FMLA retaliation, or a broader hostile work environment. Looking at the full picture often reveals significantly stronger claims.
Learn more → -
Unpaid Minimum Wage & Overtime
FLSA and New York Labor Law claims for unpaid wages.
Unpaid overtime, misclassification as exempt or as independent contractors, off-the-clock work, tip-pooling violations, and minimum-wage shortfalls. NYLL provides longer lookback periods and additional damages than the FLSA alone.
Learn more → -
Breach of Employment Contract
When an employer breaks the deal — written, oral, or implied.
Disputes over executive employment agreements, commission and bonus plans, equity arrangements, severance enforcement, and post-employment covenants.
Learn more → -
Wage Theft
Unpaid hours, misclassification, withheld tips, unlawful deductions.
A broader theory than minimum wage and overtime alone — covering all forms of wage non-payment, including unlawful deductions, withheld final paychecks, misclassification, and failure to provide wage notices and accurate pay statements.
Learn more → -
Age Discrimination
Pushed out in favor of younger employees, or pressured into 'early retirement.'
Workers over 40 denied promotions, replaced by less-experienced staff, pressured into separation packages, or terminated under cover of 'restructuring.' Includes an $800,000 settlement for a C-suite executive.
Learn more → -
Failure to Accommodate Religious Practice
Refusal to make reasonable adjustments for faith.
Refusal to grant reasonable accommodations for religious practice — including scheduling for Sabbath observance and holy days, dress and grooming accommodations, prayer breaks, and dietary restrictions.
Learn more → -
Prior Criminal Conviction Discrimination
NYC's strict protections for workers with prior convictions.
New York employers may not deny employment, terminate, or otherwise discriminate against workers because of prior criminal convictions unless they conduct a specific multi-factor analysis. NYC's Fair Chance Act adds strict procedural requirements before an offer can be withdrawn.
Learn more → -
FMLA Retaliation & Interference
Punished for taking — or asking for — protected leave.
Termination, demotion, or other adverse action against employees who took or requested leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Interference claims arise when an employer obstructs the leave itself.
Learn more → -
Severance Negotiation
Do not sign without talking to an employment lawyer first.
Review and negotiation of severance agreements for executives and senior professionals. Particularly where the underlying termination appears discriminatory or retaliatory, the release the employer is asking you to sign may be worth significantly more in negotiation than it currently reflects.
Learn more → -
New Jersey Law Against Discrimination
New Jersey's broadest employment-discrimination statute.
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination protects employees from discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and failure to accommodate. Fingerhut Law represents employees in NJ LAD claims.
Learn more →
Worth a phone call
- Were you fired within weeks of disclosing a pregnancy?
- Were you passed over for promotion after reporting harassment?
- Did a supervisor make sexual advances and then change how they treated you when you refused?
- Did you request a reasonable accommodation for a disability and find yourself written up for the first time?
- Did your employer change your job duties after you complained about discrimination?
- Were you let go after returning from a medical leave?
- Were you targeted with racial or ethnic slurs at work and HR did nothing?
If any of these sound familiar, contact Fingerhut Law for a free, confidential consultation.
If your rights at work have been violated, do not wait.
Employment claims in New York have short deadlines — sometimes as short as 180 days. Contact Fingerhut Law for a free, confidential consultation.
Cases are typically handled on a contingency-fee basis — no fee unless the firm obtains a recovery.
Schedule a Consultation