This event has completed.

12/2/2021
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM

NELA Nite: Opposing Summary Judgment Motions
December 2, 2021- 12- 1:30 PM
Zoom Webinar/ 1.5 Professional Practice CLE Credits
 
Often the make-or-break event of an employment case, this panel will explore how to oppose summary judgment, with a particular focus on discrimination, harassment and retaliation matters in federal court.  Anne L. Clark, Kevin Mintzer, and Mariann Meier Wang will cover the basics of what must be done under the rules and turn to more advanced strategies for creating the evidentiary record, preparing a Local Civil Rule 56.1 opposition, and drafting a brief designed to persuade a court that your case should be decided by a jury. Vexing questions that will be addressed include:

·      Deposition excerpts or full transcripts?
·      Should there be an additional section in the 56.1 Statement of additional material facts in dispute?
·      What are the best practices for citing to the evidentiary record?
·      How to minimize the chance that the judge disregards your client's sworn statement under the "sham affidavit" doctrine?
·      Do we really need to explain the summary judgment standard to a federal judge?
·      Should the memorandum of law have a fact section? 
·      How are we doing this in 25 pages?
·      Are there meaningful differences in summary judgment practice under federal law, the NYSHRL, and the NYCHRL?
·      If we have evidence that an employer's reason for an adverse decision is pretextual, will summary judgment be denied?
·      Is temporal proximity between protected activity and adverse action sufficient to overcome summary judgment on a retaliation claim? 
 
Anne L. Clark is a partner at Vladeck, Raskin & Clark, P.C., who concentrates on employment discrimination and other employment-related matters. She graduated from New York University and New York University School of Law.  Prior to joining Vladeck, she served as Law Clerk to Honorable Raymond J. Pettine of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island and was a Skadden Fellow/Staff Attorney with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. Ms. Clark has been an adjunct faculty member at Fordham University School of Law and has lectured on employment matters for a variety of organizations.  She is a former member of NELA/NY's Executive Board.
 
Kevin Mintzer is the principal attorney of Law Office of Kevin Mintzer, P.C., where he represents employees in employment law matters with a focus on cases involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, equal pay, and sexual assault.  Before starting his own practice in 2008, he was a partner at the firm then known as Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C.  Earlier in his career, Kevin was an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Cowen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and to the Honorable Charles P. Sifton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.  Kevin graduated from the New York University School of Law, where he was an Associate Editor of the New York University Law Review, and he has an undergraduate degree from The Johns Hopkins University.
 
Mariann Meier Wang has been litigating civil and human rights cases for over twenty-five years, focused on combating institutional injustice and systemic racism, sexism and abuse of the disadvantaged.  She is a founding partner of Cuti Hecker Wang LLP, where her cases include sexual and racial assaults and harassment, retaliation, childhood sexual abuse, housing, lending and employment discrimination, labor law violations, police misconduct, First Amendment protections, prisoners’ rights, and LGBTQ+ discrimination. She has won a number of significant rulings in defamation cases brought by survivors of sexual assault or abuse, including against Donald Trump, and is currently representing two women who were harassed by Andrew Cuomo.  Her past experiences include working at the ACLU and an international human rights law group in London.  She graduated from Harvard College and Columbia Law School, and clerked for the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr. in the E.D.N.Y.