Justin L. Engel

Employment Litigation

• In case brought by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, successfully represented a government contractor in the first gender-based compensation discrimination to go to trial.
• Served as co-lead defense counsel and prepared for trial in a Wage Act, defamation, tortious interference, and whistleblower retaliation case brought by a former executive against a management consulting company.
• Represented a technology staffing company pursuing claims for restrictive covenants violations and trade secret misappropriation against a former employee who formed a competing company.
• Defended a biomedical research company and executive against claims for restrictive covenant violations and misappropriation of trade secrets.
• Pursued claims for restrictive covenants violations against a former executive for a biomedical research company.
• Won dismissal of a retaliation suit for employer on the basis that the conduct employee opposed did not qualify as “unlawful employment practices” under Title VII.
• Won summary judgment for employer on employee’s claims for gender and race discrimination.

Business Litigation

• Won a default judgment for discovery violations in a trade secret misappropriation case.
• Defended a professional boxer in a breach of contract suit brought by a former manager.
• Represented a franchisee in a fraud dispute involving an asset purchase agreement and achieved a successful settlement.
• Represented a railroad owner in a dispute concerning a letter of intent to sell a railroad.
• Defended a clinical drug testing laboratory in connection with a false advertising and unfair competition lawsuit brought by a competitor involving alleged illegal business practices.
• Defended a private equity firm in connection with shareholder class action litigation alleging a conspiracy to fix prices in club leveraged buyout deals in violation of the Sherman Act.
• Represented a condominium builder in connection with class action litigation seeking rescission of purchase and investment contracts for hotel condominium units on the basis that the builder had failed to register the units as securities in violation of Section 12(a) of the Securities Act.
• Defended a mortgage lender in a securities class action brought by company shareholders.

Investigations

• Conducted an internal investigation for a corporation in response to a whistleblower alleging violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
• Served as fact-finding investigator for universities and conducted investigations in response to complaints of discrimination and violation of university polices.
• Conducted internal investigations for a pharmaceutical corporation and a high-tech manufacturing corporation in response to employee discrimination complaints.
• Represented a health care management organization in connection with an investigation by the Department of Justice.
• Represented a private equity firm in connection with an investigation of pay-to-play violations by the New York State Attorney General’s Office.

Employment Advice

• Advise companies in connection with reductions in force, for-cause terminations, furloughs, and employment deferrals.
• Draft and review separation agreements.
• Advise executives in connection with employment separation and employment offers.
• Draft and review company handbooks and policies.
• Draft and review confidentiality and restrictive covenant agreements.