Robert S. Dowd, Jr. has extensive experience in employment law including litigating wrongful discharge, discrimination, sexual and other forms of harassment, retaliation and class action wage and hour claims under state and federal law, negotiating of separation and severance agreements, preparing employment handbooks, and counseling individuals and businesses on a wide variety of employment matters and disputes.

 

Bob’s employment law practice has focused on claims involving violations of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, New Jersey’s whistleblower statute and wage and hour laws, sexual harassment, as well as the negotiation of severance agreements, particularly in the pharmaceutical and financial services sectors. Bob regularly represents employees as well as employers, giving him a perspective that provides a valuable advantage to his clients. He has obtained scores of confidential pre-suit settlements on behalf of employees claiming wrongful termination, and secured dismissals or minimal settlements of filed claims against employers for discrimination or sexual harassment.

 

Among the significant cases in which Bob has been involved on behalf of terminated employees is Turner v. Schering Plough, 901 F. 2d 335 (3d Cir. 1990), where the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the New Jersey District Court’s dismissal of a terminated executive's age discrimination claim in a novel case involving the burden of proof in employment litigation.

 

Bob has been a speaker at employment law seminars and published articles in this area of the law, including those listed below. He has participated as a “Master of the Bench” in the New Jersey Sidney Reitman Employment Law Inn of Court. For over 30 years, Bob was a member of the Labor and Employment Section of the New Jersey Bar Association.

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Publications:

• "A Little Knowledge Can Be a Dangerous Thing (Several Issues to Consider before Litigating a Noncompete Case),” The New Jersey Law Journal

• “Defining the Contours of Individual Liability Under the NJLAD for Aiding and Abetting Sexual Harassment,” The Bergen Barrister

 

Seminar:

• Taking Your Company's Temperature: Do Your Personnel Practices Comply with Recent Developments in NJ & NY Employment Law?

 

Representative Matters Employee:

• Obtained multi-million-dollar settlement of Federal District Court collective action filed on behalf of employees who were mischaracterized as independent contractors. Recovery was based on claims of wage and hour violations under Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and New Jersey State Wage and Hour Laws 

• As part of litigation team representing the plaintiff class in the largest wage and hour class action to that date in New Jersey, settled claim filed against Poland Spring on behalf of approximately 600 of its New Jersey-based drivers who alleged entitlement to overtime. The class action, which raised a number of novel employment law issues, was settled for approximately Five Million Dollars.

• Secured six-figure settlement on the eve of trial of claim against health care provider for its retaliatory termination of whistleblower employee who reported regulatory violations involving pathology laboratory practices. 

• Achieved six-figure settlement of claim for retaliatory termination by school district cooperative of whistleblower who had insisted on strict compliance with health and safety regulations and reported on non-compliance with these regulations. 

• Gained  six-figure settlement of claim for hospital’s illegal termination of employee based on ethnic and gender discrimination. 

• Obtained numerous additional confidential six-figure settlements and one seven-figure settlement, both before and after filing litigation, on behalf of employees against employers based on claims of ethnic, gender and racial discrimination, whistle-blower violations and sexual harassment 

• Negotiated scores of separation agreements securing numerous six figure severance payments.
   

Representative Matters Employee:

• Achieved favorable settlement after obtaining Court mandatory injunction on emergency basis against former employee executive who resigned and took electronic copies of client company’s proprietary information including customer lists.

• Successfully defended against six-figure claim for violation of Federal Labor Standards Act by employee who alleged he had not been paid for overtime work, resulting in no payment made by employer. 

• Achieved a de minimus settlement within one month of filing of complaint by former executive employee alleging sexual harassment by principal of financial services company and demanding six-figure payment, after voluntary participation in third party investigation of alleged conduct.

• Secured favorable settlement within one month of initiation of suit against client company which had hired plaintiff’s former executives bound by restrictive covenant obligations owed to their prior employer. 

• Successfully defended against quarter-million dollar claim by former employer of client’s employee for tortious interference with non-compete, non-solicitation and confidentiality contractual obligations owed to former employer, resulting in no payment made by client to former employer. 

• Obtained a $20,000 settlement of a Federal District Court litigation alleging religious and ethnic discrimination and for allegedly unpaid commissions and demanding $300,000 to settle the case.