Kathleen Peratis
KATHLEEN PERATIS is a partner at Outten & Golden LLP in New York. She has practiced employment law for over 25 years including employment contracts and separation agreements. At Outten & Golden, she chairs the Public Interest Committee and Sexual Harassment Practice Group and is a member of the Executives and Professionals Practice Group. At the ACLU from 1975 to 1979 as the director of the Women's Rights Project working with, (now) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she brought lawsuits successfully challenging as unconstitutional laws that discriminated against women on account of gender, including on account of pregnancy.
In one of those cases, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that pregnant women could not, on account of pregnancy alone, be deprived of unemployment compensation. In another, Ms. Peratis successfully represented a female midshipman who was being expelled for being in bed with a male colleague—while the male midshipman faced no punishment.
In private practice for the last thirty years, Ms. Peratis has continued to represent women and men who are entering or leaving executive or professional employment or are survivors of workplace discrimination and abuse. Her clients include people who are rising on the corporate and professional ladders as well as those who have lost promotions or jobs because of their race, religion, color, or LGBTQ status. Under Ms. Peratis’s leadership the Public Interest Committee at Outten & Golden has taken on the representation of people with workplace claims too small to be economically viable for most lawyers but too important to ignore.
Ms. Peratis authored a text book called Woman and the Law and is a contributor to Workplace Harassment, ed. Lindemann Kadue, BNA (2012); she has spoken and written on a wide range of issues or employment law. She was a regular columnist for The Jewish Daily Forward, with a column called "Only Human," from 2004 to 2010, writing about women's rights and human rights.
- University of Southern California
- J.D. (1969) | Law
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- Trump to Sexual Harassment Victim, "You're Fired!"
- O&G Employment Law Blog
- Why So Many Victims Of Sexual Harassment Stay Silent, Still
- The Atlantic
- Sexual Harassment Claims and the Tension of Maintaining Confidentiality While Seeking Support
- O&G Employment Law Blog
- After Anita Hill: What Has Changed About Sexual Harassment
- O&G Employment Law Blog
- Get Used To More Davids Becoming Dianes
- The Forward
- 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers
- Lawdragon
- Super Lawyer 2008-2018
- Super Lawyers
- New York Metro Super Lawyers Top Women
- Super Lawyers
- New York Women Leaders in the Law (2013-2015)
- New York Magazine
- Tzedek v'Shalom (Justice and Peace)
- J Street
- J Street
- Co-founder
- Current
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- The Jewish Daily Forward
- Member, Board of Directors
- Current
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- Human Rights Watch
- Co-chair of the Middle East North Africa division
- Current
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- Human Rights Watch
- Emerita member, Board of Directors
- Current
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- Human Rights Watch
- Founding chair, Women's Right division
- Current
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- State Bar of California # 45747
- Member
- Current
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- New York City Bar Association
- Member, Civil Rights and Federal Legislation Committee
- Current
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- New Israel Fund
- Board Member
- - Current
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- New York State Bar # 1105642
- Member
- - Current
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- New Israel Fund
- Vice President in North America
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- New York Civil Liberties Union
- President
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- New York
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- Employment Law
- Employee Benefits, Employment Contracts, Employment Discrimination, ERISA, Overtime & Unpaid Wages, Sexual Harassment, Whistleblower, Wrongful Termination
- English
Victims of Sexual Harassment Still Stay Silent With Kathleen Peratis Outten & Golden LLP New York