Richard G. Rosenblatt

Rich has argued appeals at the US Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, and Sixth Circuits and in the state appellate courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He also has authored briefs filed with the US Supreme Court.

His clients operate in a wide group of industry sectors that include financial services; insurance; pharmaceuticals and healthcare; technology, information management, and telecommunications; online retailing; utilities; real estate investment trusts (REITs); chemicals; defense contracting; outsourcing; business process consulting; energy; transportation; manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics; customer care; brick-and-mortar retail; food service; food and fragrance; and personal and professional services.

Certified as a Legal Process Manager^TM, Rich has a deep interest in legal process management (LPM). Rich served as the operations partner for the firm’s labor and employment practice for eight years.

Rich also has been deeply involved in bar-related activities, including as a founding member of the Academy of New Jersey Management Attorneys for which he has served as recording secretary, treasurer, vice president, and, currently, president.

In addition to frequently lecturing at Temple University’s undergraduate School of Business on compensation matters, Rich has been an alumni interviewer for Duke University for more than 20 years.

• Lead counsel for online retailer in multidistrict litigation in over a dozen class and collective actions seeking overtime pay related to time spent passing through security clearance upon exiting fulfillment center at the end of workday.
• For large trucking company, retained post-trial to handle motions and appeal of largest verdict ever under New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, $23.5 million for alleged sexual orientation harassment.
• For health-related technology company, led the prosecution of restrictive covenant claim against former high-ranking executive who accepted position as CEO of competitor; competitor separated CEO, resulting in complete victory for client.
• For office supply company, led the prosecution of restrictive covenant, breach of duty of loyalty, tortious interference, and unfair competition claims seeking damages for a corporate raiding scheme; obtained a settlement for the client for $5.5 million.
• Representing several pharmaceutical companies against claims seeking overtime for sales representatives. In the first decision of its type in this scope of litigation, Mr. Rosenblatt and his team defeated the plaintiffs' motion for collective and class action certification, after which the plaintiffs withdrew their complaint.
• Representing a large life insurance company in nationwide FLSA collective actions and New York state law class actions seeking unpaid overtime and alleging unlawful wage deductions on behalf of insurance agents. Summary judgment was granted dismissing all federal and state overtime claims, with the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on state law deduction claims denied.
• Successfully represented a credit card company with respect to its hiring and retention of an executive from another well-known credit card company despite the presence of a contractual provision expressly barring the new hire from joining our client for 12 months.
• Defeated a motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to bar our client, a high technology company, from employing a new hire in the face of a noncompetition provision and other allegations of alleged trade secret misappropriation.
• For a leading supplier of specialty chemicals, defended against a claim of inevitable disclosure of trade secrets by a research director hired from its competitor; an injunction was denied.
• For brand name heavy equipment manufacturer, defended whistleblower and disability discrimination claims; following extensive discovery, summary judgment was granted for our client in its entirety.
• For pharmaceutical company, lead counsel in 11-plaintiff ERISA fiduciary duty litigation; in case of first impression regarding when limitations period commences to run, obtained dismissal and affirmance by Court of Appeals for Third Circuit.
• For brick-and-mortar retailer, served as lead counsel in an FLSA/state law wage and hour class and collective action related to employee clothing purchase policies; the action was withdrawn upon the filing of a motion to dismiss.
• Lead counsel in numerous call center off-the-clock wage and hour collective and state law class actions filed in several federal courts and before the American Arbitration Association on behalf of employers in call center, credit card, travel services, and technology industries.
• Defended major public utility against an ERISA class action brought on behalf of thousands of independent contractors seeking ERISA-covered benefits; motion to dismiss was granted on a statute of limitations and other grounds and was affirmed on appeal.
• For major petroleum company, defended a 55-plaintiff ERISA fiduciary duty litigation bench trial; prevailed on three of four counts at trial - the fourth count was reversed on appeal and judgment was entered for the defendant.
• For life insurance company, retained as counsel to prepare and argue posttrial motions in an ADA case in which a jury had returned a verdict of $1.5 million; the verdict was set aside.
• Defended a breach of stock options contract claim; summary judgment was entered on behalf of our client and affirmed by the Sixth Circuit.
• Involved in numerous mass picketing injunctions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including having obtained what is believed to have been the first statewide labor injunction in Pennsylvania; the injunctions were affirmed by the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
• For health insurance company, co-lead counsel for employer in case of first impression representation proceeding before National Labor Relations Board seeking certification of union as representative of independent physicians; petition for representation dismissed.