Herbert Smith Freehills has further strengthened its New York offering with the hire of Partner Barbara Roth, a highly regarded employment litigator. Barbara joins the firm from Hogan Lovells, where she was a Partner and the Global Head of the Employment practice, a position she held since 2010.
Drawing on decades of experience working with multinational companies, including many in the financial services sector, Barbara advises employers on every aspect of the employment relationship.
A skilled and strategic litigator, Barbara has built a successful career representing clients in federal and state courts and in arbitrations. She counsels and defends companies in a wide range of industries on challenges including discrimination/harassment and retaliation claims (including class actions), restrictive covenant disputes, team-poaching lawsuits, whistleblower claims, litigation involving employment contracts, and in the arbitration of employment-related disputes before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the American Arbitration Association (AAA). She advises boards of directors on how to handle difficult employment problems and counsels senior management on best practices and litigation avoidance.
Barbara’s successes on behalf of clients include obtaining an injunction and money damages after a competitor “poached” a team of traders who had stolen a company’s proprietary materials; obtaining summary judgments on behalf of many corporate defendants who were charged with discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation by current and former employees; the defeat of class certification in a putative nationwide race-discrimination class action, followed by money judgments against each named plaintiff; the successful defense at both the district court and the circuit court of an ERISA claim that would have given the plaintiffs a windfall under a pension plan; and the litigation of the unforeseeable business circumstances exception to the federal plant-closing law (WARN).
Barbara received a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law, and an LL.M. from New York University School of Law.
Scott Balber, Managing Partner of Herbert Smith Freehills New York office and US Head of Investigations and Financial Services Litigation said:
“Barbara is a market leader and her depth of experience with employment matters of every type and from a wide array of sectors will be a tremendous asset to our New York offering, as well as our global network. We are thrilled to welcome her to the firm, and look forward to working together as we continue investing in and building out an elite US-based team.”
Herbert Smith Freehills’ Global Head of Practice for Employment, Pensions and Incentives, Alison Brown, said:
“Barbara’s specialization in employment litigation and her versatility across all areas of employment law align extremely well with our global offering. Many of our clients operate in regulated sectors and face complex, cross-border investigations, compliance and transactional issues in employment. Barbara’s focus in this area is perfectly in line with the growing development of the global employment practice.”
Damien Byrne Hill, Regional Head of Practice, Dispute Resolution, UK & US, added:
“Client demand for our global disputes expertise remains high and, as such, we will continue enhancing complementary offerings – such as employment and employment litigation – in the United States and across our global network.”
The firm’s New York office continues to see significant growth, and the team has quadrupled in size since the office launched in September 2012. In July 2018, Peter Behmke joined the New York office as a Disputes Partner, and in 2017, James Robinson joined as the firm’s first Corporate Partner to be based in the US. To facilitate its growth, the firm recently doubled the square footage of its New York office space at its current 450 Lexington Avenue location.
Source: www.herbertsmithfreehills.com
