Lawrence Pearson

Practice Areas

Practice areas include Employment Litigation and Sexual Harassment & Assault.

Lawrence M. Pearson is a Partner at Wigdor. Lawrence is a leading labor and employment attorney with over 20 years of experience in the field. He has represented thousands of employees and executives across the corporate spectrum in all types of employment-related legal matters, including cases involving discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment, whistleblowing, wrongful termination, breach of contract, unequal pay, wage-and-hour violations, entertainment law, civil rights law and class actions.

Lawrence frequently advises and counsels C-suite executives and senior employees in connection with executive compensation, severance agreements and contract negotiations. He has successfully negotiated scores of seven- and six-figure severance agreements on behalf of senior-level professionals in financial services, accounting, law, technology, medicine, real estate, media and entertainment, and many other fields. His trial verdicts, arbitration awards and confidential settlements total well over $50 million dollars.

An experienced trial lawyer, Lawrence concentrates his practice in the litigation of discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and whistleblower claims. He has litigated hundreds of cases concerning unlawful termination, contract violations and torts to resolution in both federal and state courts. Lawrence has litigated dozens of arbitrations through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and American Arbitration Association (AAA), among other forums.

Lawrence is a trusted advisor to select businesses, and has extensive experience advising employers on dispute resolution, workplace policies and compliance, internal investigations, leaves of absence and disability accommodation, restrictive covenants, employee discipline, recruiting and hiring practices, and many other issues.

He conducts training seminars for management and employees on employment law compliance and avoidance of discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation in the workplace (and how to ethically respond to complaints regarding the same). Lawrence has successfully defended numerous management‐side clients from various employment, contract and tort claims.

Experience and Types of Cases

Lawrence has been involved in the litigation of many complex and high-profile matters involving discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, religion, LGBTQ+ status, disability and national origin, as well as cases involving retaliation, sexual harassment, whistleblower complaints, wrongful termination, breach of contract, wage and hour violations, defamation, assault and other torts, civil rights violations, and class actions.

Lawrence’s recent representative cases include:

• Numerous settlement agreements on behalf of senior-level and other financial services professionals in connection with sexual harassment, unequal pay, failure to promote, and other discrimination on the basis of gender, pregnancy, race, national origin and disability, as well as retaliation, breach of contract and/or whistleblower complaints and claims against global Wall Street and Fortune 500 firms;

• Successful representation of doctors, surgeons and nurses in individual and group matters including disability, race and gender discrimination, FMLA violations, whistleblower retaliation, and breach of contract claims;

• Successful representation of numerous attorneys in matters involving sexual harassment, unequal pay, whistleblower retaliation and discrimination (including wrongful termination) based upon gender, race, pregnancy, LGBT status or disability;

• Successful representation of a portfolio manager in an age and disability discrimination lawsuit against a large bank;

• Successful representation of a female senior-level employee in a gender/pregnancy discrimination action against a large advertising company;

• Successful representation of multiple female employees of color in connection with claims of race discrimination against a well-known pharmaceutical company;

• Successful representation of a group of female physicians in connection with claims of systemic gender discrimination and unequal pay against a New York metro area hospital;

• Multiple settlement agreements in individual and class-action wage and hour lawsuits against prominent New York City restaurants and other companies;

• Successful representation of a recruiting director in a race and disability discrimination and retaliation matter against a global accounting firm;

• Successful representation of a marketing director in a race, religion and national origin discrimination lawsuit against a national health insurance company;

• Successful representation of a female dermatologist in connection with claims of pregnancy discrimination and parental status discrimination against a clinical laboratory;

• Successful representation of a female employee in connection with claims of race, ethnicity and national origin discrimination against an international credit rating agency;

• Successful representation of a drug development expert in a breach of contract and whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against a biopharmaceutical company;

• Successful representation of a senior-level financial manager in a race and national origin discrimination and whistleblower retaliation action against an international conglomerate;

• Successful representation of a female marketing executive in a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against a start-up travel industry company;

• Successful representation of a female interior designer in connection with claims of pregnancy discrimination and retaliation against a New York City-based interior design firm;

• Successful representation of a human resources director in a sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation matter against a global advertising company;

• Successful representation of a general manager in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against a well-known global restaurant brand;

• Successful representation of a senior-level female employee in a sexual harassment and retaliation matter against a large real estate firm;

• Successful representation of a hairstylist in a sexual harassment and retaliation matter against a well-known hair salon;

• Successful representation of a female journalist in a lawsuit alleging race, gender and national origin discrimination and retaliation against a well-known media company;

Notable Cases

While the vast majority of matters litigated by Lawrence on behalf of plaintiffs have resulted in confidential settlements totaling in the tens of millions of dollars, Lawrence’s recent notable public case outcomes include:

• $1.34 million default judgment on behalf of a former accounts payable manager and executive assistant in a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and retaliation against New York’s so-called “Taxi King” and Taxi Club Management, Inc.;

• Won an arbitration award dismissing breach of contract and unjust enrichment claims brought by an employer who sought to claw back $2.5 million in compensation from a former executive employee;

• $400,000 jury verdict in favor of a former Director of Business Development / Warehouse Manager in a disability discrimination lawsuit against medical supply company Maxi-Aids, Inc. and its owner;

• $3.9 million settlement obtained on behalf of student stabbed at a Brooklyn high school, who suffered catastrophic injury;

• $580,000 settlement agreement on behalf of a class of current and former service employees in a lawsuit alleging wage and hour violations against popular New York City restaurant Ippudo Westside;

• Successfully argued two appeals in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of a former private wealth manager in connection with her Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower retaliation claims regarding her termination by JPMorgan Chase & Co.; and

• Many multi-million-dollar settlements and wins on major court-filed motions on behalf of professionals, partners, and executives in the tech, consulting, financial services, and accounting industries (among others) regarding claims of sexual harassment and assault, race and gender discrimination and retaliation.

Publicity

Lawrence has handled numerous high‐profile cases that have garnered significant media attention and been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, New York Law Journal, TIME, Reuters, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Business Insider, New York Magazine, New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Business Journal, The Guardian, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, Variety, Gothamist, The Real Deal, Daily Mail, Bloomberg Law, The American Lawyer, ABA Journal, Above the Law and Law360, among many others. He also has appeared as a commentator on legal matters on CNBC and his cases have been covered on CNN, CNBC, WABC, WNBC, WPIX and TMZ.

Lawrence often speaks about employment- and career-related subjects, including employment discrimination, sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation, executive compensation, severance agreements, restrictive covenants (e.g. non-compete agreements), and how to navigate joining and leaving companies and lodging workplace complaints. He has authored numerous articles on employment-related legal subjects, including in the New York Law Journal and Business Insider.

Community Service

Lawrence provides pro bono counseling to a New York nonprofit organization providing seed money grants globally for young people to pursue community improvement and advocacy worldwide and also advises a mental health agency helping adults recover and integrate into society offering employment training, education, social services, housing and community.

Awards

Lawrence is ranked in Chambers USA Labor & Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs and has been recognized by Best Lawyers, widely regarded as a top peer review service, as a leading attorney in the area of Labor and Employment Litigation every year since 2019. Since 2014, he been selected to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list, a distinction that is reserved for the top 5% of attorneys in each state. In addition, Lawrence has received a 10.0 “Superb” rating from Avvo. Since 2019, Lawrence has been named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Employment Lawyers list.

Education

J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School

B.A., cum laude, The George Washington University

Admitted to Practice

• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

• Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

• New York