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Laura Sack

Shareholder

T: +1 (212) 407 6960
F: +1 (212) 407 7799

New York

Laura Sack is a Shareholder at Vedder Price and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employment practice area. For the past 20 years, Ms. Sack’s practice has been devoted exclusively to representing management in labor and employment law matters. Her practice currently includes litigating employment cases before state and federal courts, representing clients before administrative agencies, designing and conducting employee training programs, and counseling management on labor and employment law issues.

Following a one-year clerkship with the Honorable Raymond J. Pettine, US District Court Judge for the District of Rhode Island, Ms. Sack joined the labor and employment law group of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City. Ms. Sack spent more than five years at Simpson Thacher, representing employers ranging from multinational financial institutions to local nonprofit organizations. During her tenure at Simpson Thacher, Ms. Sack spent several months working in-house as interim labor and employment counsel to Philip Morris Management Corp.

In 1998, Ms. Sack joined the law department of Witco Corporation, a global specialty chemical manufacturer headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. As Witco’s Senior Attorney, Human Resources Counsel, Ms. Sack was responsible for the company’s labor and employment, employee benefits and immigration matters worldwide. Ms. Sack joined Kauff McClain & McGuire LLP (a boutique management-side labor and employment law firm based in New York City) later in 1998 and became a partner in 2000. Ms. Sack joined Vedder Price as a Shareholder in January 2009.

Ms. Sack was on the faculty of the Practising Law Institute’s 2010 Annual Institute on Employment Law, where she spoke on the topic of "Personnel, Investigative and Health Records." She has also been selected to speak at a variety of other labor and employment law seminars, including those sponsored by the New York State Bar Association and the Cornell University ILR School. Her article, "The FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guides Highlight the Need for Employers to Adopt Appropriate Social Media Policies," was published in the Summer 2010 American Bar Association Employment Law & Litigation newsletter. In recent years, Ms. Sack has been quoted in Business Insurance, Fortune, Best Life and HR Magazine, and she has been published in the New Jersey CPA magazine.

Ms. Sack has been recognized by her peers as a leading lawyer in her field, as evidenced by having received an "AV Preeminent" Peer Rating in Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating given to participating attorneys. In addition, the Legal 500 United States guide recommends Ms. Sack in the Labor and Employment—Workplace and Employment Counseling category. Ms. Sack is a past member of the Sex and Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and a past member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Employment Law 360.

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Sack

Selected Practice Highlights

Training:

Ms. Sack has designed and delivered harassment-free workplace training programs for executives, supervisors and employees across the United States, including New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Ohio and California. She has provided such training across a broad spectrum of industries, including construction, telecommunications, banking and other financial services, entertainment and media, advertising, manufacturing, nonprofit and retail. Ms. Sack regularly provides training on a variety of other topics as well, including worker classification, litigation avoidance, union avoidance/awareness and other personnel issues.

Special Projects:

Ms. Sack is regularly called upon to conduct internal investigations and to conduct human resources and legal compliance audits for clients. She also regularly assists clients in the creation and implementation of expense reduction programs, including reductions in force. Her work in this area runs the gamut, from counseling senior executives on the legal implications of staff reductions to coaching managers on making sound business judgments regarding position eliminations; and drafting severance plans, separation agreements, WARN notices, internal and external communications and board resolutions.

Ms. Sack’s numerous litigation victories include the following:

successfully moving to enforce a predispute arbitration agreement that included a provision shortening the applicable statute of limitations to six months, resulting in dismissal with prejudice of plaintiff’s age discrimination complaint filed in New Jersey state court;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a federal complaint alleging harassment and discrimination on the basis of race and gender (including disparate pay, wrongful discharge and retaliation claims), following the EEOC’s finding of "reasonable cause" against the employer with regard to those claims;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) retaliation and interference complaint where the plaintiff was discharged shortly after she requested FMLA leave;
obtaining dismissal of a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower complaint filed with the US Department of Labor without a hearing, and before any discovery had been taken, and getting the dismissal affirmed on appeal;
obtaining prediscovery dismissal of a federal complaint alleging discrimination and harassment based on the plaintiff’s sex, national origin and perceived sexual orientation;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a federal complaint alleging race-based pay disparities;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a federal complaint alleging discrimination and harassment on the basis of age, race, sex and disability; retaliation; interference with FMLA rights; and intentional infliction of emotional distress;
obtaining dismissal prior to discovery of a federal sex and race discrimination action where the plaintiff had signed an employment agreement containing an arbitration provision;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of federal race and retaliation claims asserted by a union employee who was laid off and subsequently recalled to work;
obtaining dismissal of a breach of contract action filed in New York state court by a former in-house lawyer. The dismissal was subsequently affirmed on appeal;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a federal complaint alleging sexual harassment and retaliation filed by the employee of a client’s outside security company. The court granted summary judgment after concluding that there was no evidence the client was actually involved in any discriminatory or retaliatory conduct;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a federal complaint filed in the Southern District of Ohio alleging age discrimination, retaliation, breach of contract and promissory estoppel. The dismissal was subsequently affirmed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals;
obtaining dismissal of a state court action alleging breach of contract and defamation. The plaintiff alleged that his employer had (i) violated the procedures outlined in its sexual harassment policy when it terminated his employment; and (ii) defamed him following his discharge. The case was dismissed on the grounds that (i) plaintiff’s defamation claim was time-barred; and (ii) the employer’s personnel policies did not create an employment contract under New York law;
obtaining a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming a lower court’s dismissal on summary jugment of a complaint alleging race discrimination and retaliation;
winning a labor arbitration filed on behalf of a university professor who objected to the university’s decision not to increase her salary. The arbitrator confirmed that the professor’s time to file a grievance under the governing collective bargaining agreement began to run when she first learned of the challenged employment decision;
obtaining dismissal prior to discovery of a lawsuit alleging violation of the plaintiff’s federal civil rights, criminal conspiracy to deprive him of those rights, defamation, religious discrimination in violation of state and local law, and breach of contract. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently confirmed that the plaintiff had no viable federal claims;
obtaining pre-discovery dismissal of a complaint in which the plaintiff claimed he was discharged in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The plaintiff had attached to his complaint a doctor’s note stating he could not lift more than 30 pounds. The court granted the motion to dismiss on the grounds that the plaintiff’s lifting restriction did not render him "disabled";
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a federal complaint alleging race and age discrimination. Twice in the course of the litigation, Ms. Sack successfully sought sanctions against the plaintiff’s attorney: first, for failing to timely provide responses to discovery requests; and second, for refusing to withdraw the plaintiff’s constitutional claims against his former private-sector employer;
obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a class action claim for severance pay filed in federal court in Erie, Pennsylvania following the sale of a manufacturing facility; and
securing a federal court order compelling the plaintiff in a discrimination case to produce documents and information regarding her efforts to secure alternative employment while working for the defendant, and allowing the defendant to subpoena third parties regarding the plaintiff’s job search while she was employed by the defendant. Winning these discovery disputes proved critical to the case, and the discovery elicited following the court order was extremely damaging to the plaintiff’s case.

J.D., Yale Law School, 1991
A.B., magna cum laude, Brown University (Phi Beta Kappa), 1988
Baker Fellowship for Leadership and Scholarship

New York, 1992
US District Court, Southern District of New York, 1993
US District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1993
US District Court, Western District of New York, 2008
US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 2000
US Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 2006

Member, New York City Bar Association (past member of the Sex and Law Committee)