Catching up on 2018 – and What’s to Come!
This morning, I took a moment to pause and reflect on my life as it stands. When I think about what’s most important, of course, I think of my family first (Zohra is six now! and Sadia is three!). But loving them, and providing for them, comes pretty easily. Naturally, they are irascible at times, but by and large they are kindhearted, curious, creative, and boundlessly energetic. “Children strive lifeward”, as Dr. Ned Hallowell – my favorite author on children – likes to say. But anyway, I digress. The harder part about parenting is the responsibility I feel to show them what it means to make the most of my potential and to make the difference I want to see in the world. It’s been almost three years since I created my law firm dedicated to fighting gender and pregnancy discrimination in the workplace and fighting for the rights of NYC tenants. Am I proud? Eff yeah. We have done incredible work; we’ve helped dozens and dozens of people get to a better place in their lives, and we’re only getting started. My favorite part about thinking about my law firm is the security I feel in the knowledge that every single person on my team has a genuine desire, first and foremost, to help our clients. As employment and L&T litigators, we face difficult situations every day. Worse, we are all a bunch of quick-witted hotheads with strong opinions about virtually everything, and we all like to argue. But I never doubt, for even a second, that each person on my team has our clients’ best interests in mind. We are always, always thinking about what are the client’s goals, what will be best for the client, how can we save the client unnecessary legal fees, how is the client feeling about everything right now, has she changed her mind since we last checked in. That level of trust gives me great pride. It’s what makes me the happiest when I think about my firm. Don’t get me wrong – I take great pride in our skills also! This year, the results speak for themselves. Our teamwork with our clients, whether pushing the envelope to fight gender and pregnancy discrimination in the workplace or fighting for our L&T clients’ tenancy rights, is something to celebrate. Some of the amazing results we obtained this past year: Secured substantial six-figure settlements for two clients sexually harassed by their employer Secured a monetary recovery for client subject to extremely hostile work environment including sexist slurs and profanity. She’s now at a new job where she can focus on her talents, and not suffering through constant attack Negotiated a substantial recovery for an employee who was fired while pregnant Won reimbursement of attorney’s fees for client who was temporarily absent from his rent-stabilized home due to family obligations Through targeted and strategic litigation, we successfully persuaded a recalcitrant Board to let our clients sell their HDFC unit, where prior counsel had tried and-