Legal Services & Lawyers

HOWARD E. GILBERT, ESQ. of the LAW OFFICES OF HOWARD E. GILBERT maintains a private practice law firm devoted exclusively to Labor and Employment Law matters. Mr. Gilbertâs experience is extensive, spanning more than 30 years as an attorney, professor, negotiator, arbitrator, and mediator involving a wide array of labor and employment disputes in both the private and public sectors.

Call 631.630.0100 or go to gilbertlegal.net for more information.

The firm serves a diverse range of clients. Mr. Gilbert provides daily counsel regarding employment discrimination and harassment of all types, labor-management issues, wage and hour/overtime issues, employee relations, contract administration and interpretation, executive compensation, severance, ERISA, discipline and discharge, and wage and hour issues.

Mr. Gilbertâs litigation experience is extensive, encompassing various administrative agencies, and the federal and state courts, at both the trial and appellate levels, including the U.S. Supreme Court and N.Y.S. Court of Appeals.

Over the years, Mr. Gilbert has handled literally hundreds of administrative proceedings including contractual grievance arbitrations, disciplinary hearings, unfair labor practice hearings, representation cases, organizational campaigns, and employment discrimination matters. He regularly appears before such agencies as the EEOC, State Division of Human Rights, American Arbitration Association, National Labor Relations Board, NYS and US Departments of Labor, Public Employment Relations Board, and Merit Systems Protection Board. Mr. Gilbert has also regularly supervised or handled comprehensive collective bargaining negotiations.

Typical issues involve discipline and discharge, executive compensation disputes, sexual harassment, whistleblowing, contract administration and interpretation disputes, arbitrability, commissions, seniority, compensation, employee and labor relations policy, family and medical leave, reasonable accommodation, past practices, retirement compensation, overtime, denial of benefits, past practices, management rights, promotion and upgrading, transfers, health care, unfair labor practices, compliance with Employee Handbooks, layoffs, subcontracting, wage and hour, increase of production work rules, employment discrimination, unfair labor practices, union representation issues, and health and safety issues. The firm also handles disputes concerning administration of collective bargaining agreements, Handbook policies, and complex collective bargaining negotiations.

Mr. Gilbert currently serves as an Arbitrator and Neutral Chairperson for both Nassau and Suffolk County District Courts. Mr. Gilbert has been a neutral appellate Hearing Officer on behalf of the Chancellor, New York City Board of Education in various disputes. Mr. Gilbert is a certified Labor Mediator and Arbitrator for the Employment Discrimination Resolution (EDR) and Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) panels of the Nassau County Bar Association.

Mr. Gilbert has lectured or taught numerous seminars and courses in such topics as Employment Discrimination Law, Sexual Harassment, Whistleblowers, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Employment At Will, Discipline and Discharge, Labor Law, Civil Service Law, and Fair Employment Practices. Mr. Gilbert has been an Adjunct Professor for Cornell University/New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Mr. Gilbert is a member of the American, New York State, Suffolk County, and Nassau County Bar Associations, where he serves on various committees. He is a member of the Industrial Relations Research Association.

Mr. Gilbert is a graduate of Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts (top 5%) (B.A. Double Major: English and Psychology), and has a Juris Doctor degree from St. Johnâs University School of Law (1980). He successfully completed the National Institute of Trial Advocacy in August 1984.

The LAW OFFICES OF HOWARD E. GILBERT prides itself in providing the highest quality legal representation. Its overall objective has been and continues to be a specific commitment to outstanding, meticulous, and immediate service, caring, and developing an ongoing personal relationship with each of its clients. Call 631.630.0100 and ask for Mr. Gilbert or visit the firm's website at gilbertlegal.net.

Mr. Raff was admitted to the Bar in the State of New York in 1969. He serves as a federal court appointed Special Master in three complex employment and discrimination law cases. He is also an active labor arbitrator, mediator and fact finder on panels from the American Arbitration Association, National Mediation Board, New York State Mediation Board, New York City Office of Collective Bargaining and the New York State-CSEA Disciplinary Panel. He has served as a member of the New York State Human Rights Advisory Council and is presently a member of the American Arbitration Association's National Alternative Dispute Task Force.

As a full-time member of the faculty of New York University School of Law for ten years, Mr. Raff taught labor and employment law, arbitration, administrative law and trial practice. He has served as a consultant to New York City's Bureau of Labor Services, New York State's Financial Control Board and the New York State Deputy Comptroller for New York City Affairs. He has also served as the Chairman of the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Civil Rights from 1981 to 1985, and is currently a member of the American Bar Association, Labor and Employment Section, and New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the Society for Professionals In Dispute Resolution. Mr. Raff is listed in Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America, and Who's Who in The East. In 1996, Mr. Raff was honored by the New York City Chapter of the National Organization for Women, 1998, for his legal work supporting women's rights. In 1998, Mr. Raff was honored by being elected as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Founding partner Leo Glickman has a long track record of holding the powerful accountable and fighting for progressive candidates and causes. While serving as the NY State Chair of Common Cause, he spearheaded legal efforts to force the Republican-led New York State Senate to open their financial books. The case resulted in a landmark decision by the Court of Appeals, Weston vs. Sloan, that requires the State Senate to disclose its taxpayer-funded budget to the public.

He headed a division of the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB), and was responsible for training candidates in complying with the City's campaign finance law and utilizing the law to maximize the public funding of their campaigns. His nuts and bolts experience with campaign finance law makes him an effective campaign advisor and advocate before the Campaign Finance Board, Board of Elections, the Federal Election Commission, and the courts.

Mr. Glickman left the CFB to work for the Manhattan Borough President, C. Virginia Fields. As her Counsel, he developed civil rights policy, authored a report on discrimination in the taxi industry, and played a lead role in the Borough President's responses to the police shootings of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond. When Mayor Giuliani released the juvenile records of Dorismond, he drafted proposed legislation to strengthen the privacy rights of juvenile offenders.

Mr. Glickman represents candidates for Statewide and Citywide offices as well as many candidates for local legislative positions. He also advises political action committees (PACs) on the complex thicket of local, state, and federal election and campaign finance laws. In addition, Mr. Glickman is an experienced civil rights litigator, representing clients whose constitutional rights have been violated by members of the Police Department and the Department of Correction.

PETER J. SCHAFFER, Attorney at Law devotes his practice to New York State criminal defense and the defense of all federal criminal matters throughout the United States. With experience handling cases ranging from simple traffic violations to complex federal death penalty eligible felonies, Mr. Schaffer uses the knowledge and skills he has developed over the course of his twenty-two years of trial work to help his clients achieve the best result in every case he defends.

Mr. Schaffer appears regularly on The Nancy Grace Show on CNN Headline News and on COURT TV, now “IN SESSION” on truTV and as an expert commentator in criminal law and trial practice. He has also appeared on and on Sirius Satellite Radio and Bloomberg News Radio to discuss nationally prominent criminal cases.

If you or someone you are concerned about has been arrested in New York or for any federal crime or is being investigated by any New York State or federal agency, you need an experienced criminal trial lawyer. Call PETER J. SCHAFFER at (718) 585-4444.

Our office represents clients in every stage of the criminal process from investigation through appeal including:

All New York Criminal Cases
All Federal Criminal Cases
Felonies
Misdemeanors
DWI / DUI
Arraignments / Police Lineups
Traffic and Motor Vehicle Infractions and Violations
Probation and Parole Violations and Revocation

Prior to establishing his law practice in 1981, Steven Orlow was an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County, New York and then Counsel to the county executive of Queens County, New York. In 1980, Steven Orlow was elected to the City Council to the then existing position of "Council Member-At-Large" representing the almost two million people of Queens County in the City Council. During the latter year of his Council membership, Mr. Orlow established his law practice and, soon after establishing the practice, left the City Council to concentrate in the area of personal injury in his private practice.

Steven Orlow's activities have extended beyond his law practice to active involvement in a variety of community activities both professional and charitable in nature. In the area of professional involvement, Mr. Orlow is, or has been, a member of the Board of Directors of the Brandeis Association of Queens County, the New York State Bar Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Orlow has also been very active in the Queens County Bar Association, having served for many years as a member of its Board of Managers and then, consecutively, as treasurer, vice president, president elect and, in 2008, being elected to the presidency of the Queens County Bar Association.

Mr. Orlow has been married to his wife, Susan, since 1970 and together they have three children and five grandchildren. Two of Mr. Orlow's children, Brian and Adam, are his partners in the law practice, each having been practicing with their father for over a decade.

Mr. Orlow is particularly proud of the opinions held by former clients of his, which confirm what he had hoped would be his firm's devotion to the high standards of the legal profession and their application in its everyday practice. A review of the client testimonials will reflect this aspect of Steven Orlow's outlook, to which his firm strives in its practice of law.

Areas of practice: plaintiff's personal injury/negligence which includes all aspects of injuries to individuals including construction accidents, lead paint poisoning, assaults and rapes in premises, premises accidents, slip and fall accidents, automobile and other motor vehicle accidents, commercial vehicle accidents, civil rights matters involving police misconduct, false arrest and excessive force.

Bruce Barket is well known for successfully handling high-profile cases and for his many trial victories. When the stakes are high, he has been the trial lawyer of choice. He has been frequently covered by the national media, including CNN, USA Today, Court TV, Fox News, The New York Times, and PBS’ Frontline.

Mr. Barket has won numerous acquittals in high-profile cases involving such crimes as securities / mail fraud, murder, and racketeering. Through grit, tenacity, and the use of his courtroom skills, he has put together an impressive string of both criminal and civil trial victories that span more than two decades.

He is also known for obtaining uncanny results in the appellate and post-judgment process for clients previously convicted. Based upon his energetic and highly skilled re-investigation of these “cold cases”, he has won motions and hearings resulting in the overturning of criminal convictions where prior attorneys had failed and the clients were serving a prison sentence.

Mr. Barket is a sought-after lecturer at Continuing Legal Education seminars where he teaches various aspects of trial practice and criminal defense to other lawyers. He has spoken at bar associations and law schools on such topics as delivering effective summations, the art of cross examining government witnesses, cross examining law enforcement agents, and confronting and defeating eye witness testimony. He is also well known for his work and lectures regarding how to attack confessions taken by law enforcement personnel.

The New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers bestowed upon him the prestigious Gideon Award in 2003 and 2008 for his outstanding work on behalf of his clients. He was also named Practitioner of the Year in 2005 by the Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association.

Mr. Barket was an Assistant District Attorney in Nassau County from 1986 to 1991 and has been in private practice for nearly 20 years. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers from 1999 to 2008 and remains an active member of the Association. He is also a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Mr. Barket served as President of the Nassau County Legal Aid Society from 2005 to 2006 and has been a member of its Board of Directors from 2000 to the present. He also served as President of the Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association from 2002 to 2003.

He now serves as the leader of the White Collar / Criminal Defense & Investigations Group at Quadrino Schwartz and is a leader in the firm’s Trial Practice Group. He represents individuals and businesses facing allegations involving all types of federal and state offenses.