Orin Kurtz

Orin Kurtz represents employees in class actions, individual litigation, and executive contract negotiations. Mr. Kurtz also counsels employers in employment law compliance. Mr. Kurtz has worked on some of the largest class action settlements in history, and recently obtained a record-setting $61,000,000 settlement in a class action against General Electric for violation of ERISA (the law governing employee retirement plans such as 401(k) accounts). Mr. Kurtz has obtained significant recoveries for employees including: - $5,000,000 recovery against a multinational media company for failure to pay overtime; - $2,000,000 aggregate recovery for nurses and nursing assistants who were denied overtime pay; - $1,000,000 recovery for newspaper delivery drivers who were misclassified as independent contractors; - $850,000 recovery for medical industry salespeople who were misclassified as independent contractors; - $650,000 recovery for wait staff at the US Open tennis tournament who were denied overtime and subject to unlawful retention of gratuities. Mr. Kurtz also represents individual employees in all aspects of employment including: - High-level employees including doctors, dentists, executives, and insurance salespeople in contract negotiations, severance agreements, and post employment litigation for issues regarding non-compete clauses, non-solicitation agreements, discrimination and breach of contract; - Employees of all levels in issues including failure to pay wages, failure to pay overtime, discrimination in violation of Title VII, the New York City Human Rights Law, and the New York State Human Rights Law, misclassification as an independent contractor, and failure to pay commissions. Mr. Kurtz also counsels employers on areas including employment agreements, non-competes, severance agreements, and general compliance.