Free
Member Since 2023
Free
2023
William Phillips
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About PHILLIPS & ASSOCIATES | Sexual Harassment, Discrimination & Employment Lawyers
Employment Law Exclusively. Employees Only. Never Employers.
The firm’s record reflects years of representing employees, and only employees, in career-impacting workplace disputes.
We do one thing.
Phillips & Associates is a Chambers-ranked, employee-side employment litigation firm based in New York. Since its founding in November 2011, the firm has practiced employment law exclusively, has represented employees only, and has never represented an employer. That single focus builds deep, repeated experience with the statutes, the evidence, the damages, and the employer defenses that decide workplace cases.
The firm represents employees in career-impacting workplace disputes against Fortune 500 companies, major institutions, executives, founders, CEOs, business owners, law firm partners, physicians, and other powerful decision-makers. It combines the resources and litigation capacity of a substantial plaintiff-side employment practice with partner-led, boutique-style representation.
The team that evaluates your case is the team that litigates it.
No one handles a career-impacting employment case alone. Phillips & Associates assigns every accepted matter to a dedicated litigation team led by a partner or senior litigator and supported by an associate attorney and a paralegal. The same team develops the facts, the evidence, the damages analysis, the negotiation strategy, and the litigation plan, and remains with the matter through resolution. Strategy, valuation, mediation, settlement, and trial preparation receive senior-level review.
Those teams draw on 38 full-time, in-house attorneys, more than 50 attorneys and professional staff, and more than 200 years of combined employment-law experience. Many of the firm’s partners have worked together on sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation matters for more than a decade.
Phillips & Associates represents employees in workplace sexual harassment, workplace relationship harassment, quid pro quo sexual harassment, hostile work environment claims, retaliation, including retaliation after an employee rejects advances or ends a workplace relationship, discrimination based on race, gender, pregnancy, disability, religion, and national origin, whistleblower retaliation, pregnancy and parental-leave discrimination, medical and family leave disputes, accommodation disputes, and wrongful termination after protected complaints.
Workplace power dynamics are at the center of the work. Many workplace sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation cases involve someone who has power over the employee’s job or career. A supervisor may control schedules, pay, assignments, discipline, promotions, or continued employment. A law firm partner may determine whether a junior attorney advances. A physician, founder, business owner, CEO, rainmaker, or high-performing executive may be protected because that person brings money, clients, or influence to the organization.
That imbalance of power helps explain why employees may stay quiet, why reporting misconduct can feel dangerous, and why retaliation can cause serious career and financial harm. It can also affect workplace relationship harassment, including situations in which a person with authority repeatedly pursues an employee or punishes the employee after an advance is rejected or a relationship ends.
Phillips & Associates examines who had power over the employee, how that power was used, what the employer and human resources knew, how the complaint was handled, and what changed after the employee reported, resisted, or rejected the conduct. That focus shapes the firm’s case strategy, litigation, published decisions, and attorney training.
Phillips & Associates represents employees in high-profile and confidential matters involving powerful individuals and institutions, including executives, founders, business owners, law firm partners, physicians, celebrities, public figures, high-net-worth individuals, and employers in private-household settings. In these cases, money, influence, publicity, and institutional protection can increase the pressure on an employee who reports, rejects, or resists misconduct.
These matters may involve sexual harassment, sexual assault, coercion, retaliation, abuse of authority, confidentiality concerns, or allegations that an employer ignored warning signs, protected a powerful wrongdoer, minimized a complaint, or punished the person who came forward. Many are resolved confidentially without ever becoming public.
The firm’s publicly filed matters have included allegations involving Sean Combs, Harvey Weinstein, Kanye West, and Maksud Agadjani, the owner of TraxNYC and a jeweler featured in Uncut Gems. Phillips & Associates has also handled confidential matters involving assistants, household employees, professionals, and workers in entertainment, media, finance, law, healthcare, and private households.
These cases are not handled by one lawyer working alone. Senior attorneys lead dedicated litigation teams that address evidence preservation, witness strategy, damages, confidentiality, internal investigations, publicity and reputational consequences, and litigation against sophisticated defendants and defense counsel. The firm’s attorneys use trauma-informed communication while maintaining the judgment and discipline required to develop and litigate a serious employment case.
Phillips & Associates’ matters and attorneys have been covered by national and international media, including the BBC, Reuters, Bloomberg Law, Forbes, Rolling Stone, NBC News, People, and the New York Post.
When an employee brings a claim against a substantial employer, the lawyers on the other side evaluate whether the employee’s firm is prepared to conduct discovery, take depositions, oppose motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment, retain experts where appropriate, try the case, and pursue an appeal. Phillips & Associates has litigated approximately 2,000 employment cases, appeared before more than 110 United States District Judges and more than 70 United States Magistrate Judges, and opposed more than 550 management-side defense firms, including Jackson Lewis, Littler Mendelson, Ogletree Deakins, Seyfarth Shaw, Morgan Lewis, Proskauer Rose.
The firm’s record also includes decisions that have shaped employment law. In Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, the Second Circuit held that an employer may be liable when it negligently allows a biased nonsupervisory employee’s false accusations to cause retaliation against the person who complained. In Roberts v. Genting New York, the Second Circuit revived WARN Act claims on behalf of 177 employees. The firm’s trial results include a $1.8 million federal jury verdict in Pardovani v. Crown Building Maintenance in the Southern District of New York. As of July 2026, the firm’s indexed verdicts and published decisions have been cited more than 650 times in judicial opinions and court filings.
Many employees facing workplace sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation do not want to file a public lawsuit. Employers, insurers, and defense counsel still evaluate claims differently when they know the employee’s lawyers are prepared to litigate fully, from substantial discovery and necessary depositions through dispositive motions, experts, trial, and appeal.
Filing a lawsuit is not the goal in every matter. Phillips & Associates prepares each case with litigation in mind so the client has stronger options and greater leverage, whether the client seeks a confidential resolution, files a lawsuit, or ultimately proceeds to trial. That credibility has contributed to favorable resolutions in many matters, often confidentially and before a public complaint was filed.
Phillips & Associates has recovered more than $360 million for employees, including more than $60 million in 2025. Individual recoveries include a
Phillips & Associates operates as a fully in-office firm, and its attorneys and professional staff are full-time members of the firm rather than contract lawyers who receive isolated assignments. Departments sit together, and paralegals typically work directly outside the offices of the partners they support, allowing questions, evidence, and strategy issues to be addressed as they arise.
Founder and managing partner William K. Phillips keeps no private office. He sits in the center of the firm’s New York office behind glass walls, beside the in-house intake department and chief operating officer, so attorneys, staff, and intake professionals can reach senior leadership directly. Calls are handled by the firm’s own intake team, not an outsourced call center.
Phillips & Associates also maintains the financial and litigation resources substantial employment cases may require, including the ability to retain qualified experts and investigators, conduct necessary depositions, obtain evidence, and develop the case without cutting essential work because of cost.
Employment cases involve more than legal issues. They involve careers, compensation, reputation, leverage, and risk. Phillips & Associates evaluates those concerns through both a legal and a business lens.
Executive and high-earner disputes may involve equity, stock options, deferred compensation, bonuses, carried interest, severance, restrictive covenants, and the financial consequences of an executive exit. Before founding Phillips & Associates, William K. Phillips served as a Vice President at Fieldstone Private Capital Group, a New York investment bank, where he worked on international mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings.
That background helps the firm evaluate an executive’s claim and financial losses in real economic terms, anticipate how the employer and its advisors are likely to value the dispute, and develop a strategy that accounts for the legal claims, business risks, and economics of the exit. In the 2026 Chambers USA Guide, market sources noted that the team “has an exceptional understanding of the business context in which employment issues arise and consistently demonstrates strong commercial awareness.”
Sexual harassment and discrimination are personal long before they become legal claims. Employees may be deciding whether to report misconduct to human resources, respond to an internal investigation, announce a pregnancy, request medical or family leave, accept severance, resign, file an administrative charge, or bring a lawsuit. Decisions made during those early stages can affect the employee’s evidence, career, financial security, and legal options.
All Phillips & Associates attorneys and staff receive trauma-informed training. That training matters in cases involving sexual harassment, sexual assault, coercion, retaliation, and misconduct by supervisors, executives, business owners, physicians, law firm partners, and others in positions of authority. The goal is not to avoid difficult facts. It is to obtain the information needed to evaluate the case without unnecessarily adding to the pressure the employee is already experiencing.
The firm frequently advises employees before they report to HR, participate in an investigation, resign, accept severance, or file a claim. Early advice can help an employee understand the risks, preserve relevant evidence, avoid preventable mistakes, and make informed decisions about what happens next.
William K. Phillips also founded the National Plaintiffs’ Summit on Sexual Harassment and Employment Discrimination, a national conference for plaintiff-side employment lawyers and advocates. The firm’s commitment to understanding the human impact of workplace misconduct also extends to Not in the Newsletter, a podcast that brings together employment lawyers, psychotherapists, and people with lived experience to discuss what can happen when an employee reports sexual harassment, announces a pregnancy, requests leave, or challenges other workplace misconduct. Chambers sources described the group as leading “with compassion for their client” on top of its integrity and knowledge.
Phillips & Associates is ranked in Band 3 by Chambers and Partners in the 2026 Chambers USA Guide for Labor & Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs in New York. Chambers researchers, drawing on interviews with clients and opposing counsel, reported that the firm “handles high-stakes employment matters with precision, credibility and restraint, earning the trust of both courts and clients.” Chambers describes the firm as a reputable plaintiff-side employment practice recognized for its work in sexual harassment, discrimination, and high-profile employment litigation.
Firm attorneys are recognized in The Best Lawyers in America 2026, and Phillips & Associates is ranked in the 2026 edition of Best Law Firms for Litigation – Labor and Employment in New York City. Fifteen firm attorneys are recognized by Super Lawyers.
Thirteen Phillips & Associates attorneys are members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Membership requires qualifying experience as principal counsel in a verdict, arbitration award, or settlement of at least $1 million, with Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum membership requiring a qualifying result of at least $2 million.
Phillips & Associates handles accepted matters on a contingency basis, with no attorney fees unless the firm recovers for the client. The firm serves employees through offices in New York City, Garden City, White Plains, Princeton, Philadelphia, and Miami, which is available by appointment. Free and confidential consultations are available at 866-229-9441.
Workplace relationship harassment can arise when a person with authority repeatedly pursues an employee, pressures the employee into a sexual or romantic relationship, or punishes the employee for rejecting an advance, setting a boundary, or ending a relationship. Phillips & Associates represents employees in matters involving supervisors, executives, business owners, physicians, law firm partners, and managers who control pay, schedules, assignments, promotions, discipline, or continued employment.
These cases may involve a boss who keeps asking an employee out, unwanted late-night messages, pressure to meet alone, requests for sexual photographs, promises of workplace benefits, or threats of career consequences. They may also involve favoritism tied to submission to a supervisor’s advances, a relationship that became unwelcome or coercive, or retaliation after the employee tried to end it.
An employee does not automatically lose legal protection because they initially agreed to a date or relationship. Key questions include who held power over the employee’s job, whether the conduct became unwelcome, whether continued participation was pressured or tied to workplace benefits, and what changed after the employee resisted, rejected, or ended the relationship. Employers should not dismiss potential sexual harassment or retaliation as merely a private relationship problem when workplace authority and job consequences are involved. Phillips & Associates handles these matters with discretion and trauma-informed communication.
Phillips & Associates represents employees in serious, career-impacting workplace disputes. The firm handles workplace sexual harassment, workplace relationship harassment, quid pro quo sexual harassment, hostile work environment claims, discrimination, retaliation, whistleblower retaliation, pregnancy and parental-leave discrimination, medical leave and accommodation disputes, and termination following protected complaints.
These matters may involve discrimination based on race, sex, pregnancy, disability, religion, national origin, age, or other protected characteristics. They frequently involve supervisors, managers, executives, founders, CEOs, law firm partners, physicians, and business owners who have authority over the employee’s pay, assignments, advancement, reputation, or continued employment.
The firm also handles high-profile and confidential matters involving celebrities, public figures, high-net-worth individuals, private households, and powerful institutions.
Speaking with an employment lawyer before reporting misconduct or resigning can help you understand the risks, preserve evidence, and avoid decisions that may limit your options. Employees facing workplace sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation may worry that HR is protecting the company, witnesses will be afraid to cooperate, or the employer is already developing an explanation for what happened.
Phillips & Associates advises employees before they report misconduct, participate in an internal investigation, resign, sign severance documents, or file a claim. The firm helps clients evaluate the available evidence and decide whether their goals are best served through internal reporting, a confidential resolution, an administrative charge, or a lawsuit.
Your call is handled by Phillips & Associates’ in-house intake team, not an outsourced call center. The intake professionals work inside the firm’s offices alongside its attorneys, leadership, and professional staff. Founder and managing partner William K. Phillips sits beside the intake department, allowing potential matters and urgent issues to receive direct internal attention.
If the firm accepts your matter, it is assigned to an attorney and dedicated legal team for prompt evaluation and development.
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