Lichtenstein, Russell L.

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With an impressive collection of favorable jury verdicts in employment matters, Russell L. Lichtenstein is generally regarded as one the most successful and effective management-side employment litigators in New Jersey.

He serves as Chairman of the firm’s Employment & Labor and Casino & Hospitality Industry Defense Litigation practice groups. He regularly appears in matters in the state and federal courts of New Jersey and before the administrative agencies which address employment issues.

Additionally, he has been admitted in other jurisdictions to assist clients around the country in a variety of employment related matters. Complementing his employment practice, Russell also has an expertise in traditional labor-law matters including contract negotiation, contact drafting, providing guidance on the daily issues that arise in a unionized workforce and defending Unfair Labor Practice charges before the NLRB.

Russell is also the firm’s lead trial counsel representing casino clients. On a day-to-day basis he interacts with the casinos’ risk management departments as well as coordinating activities with other departments including facilities, security, food and beverage, housekeeping, construction, maintenance in the defense of claims. Russell has a vast amount of experience and expertise in the defense of security negligence claims.

Before joining Cooper Levenson in 1983, he served with distinction as an Assistant Prosecutor in Cape May County. His expertise as a former prosecutor has given him the investigative, analytical, and courtroom skills to mount an aggressive defense of any claim or allegation.

Case Highlights

In the more than 30 years that he has been with Cooper Levenson, Russell has successfully defended cases brought against employers including: the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act, the New Jersey Wage and Hour Law, Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Older Worker Benefit Protect Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the WARN Act.

Credentials

• Rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell* in Labor Law, Employment Law, Employment Litigation
• Selected for inclusion on the New Jersey “Super Lawyers”** list for fourteen consecutive years in Labor Law, Employment Law, and Employment Litigation
• Selected as one of New Jersey’s “Top Attorneys” in the employment litigation field by New Jersey Monthly Magazine in each year they have made that designation from 2004 through the present
• Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney
• Recognized by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Certified Trial Advocate.
• Member, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Atlantic County and Cape May County and American Bar Associations

Community

Russell is active in many civic and charitable organizations and formerly served two terms as President of the Jersey Shore Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Education

A graduate of Temple University (B.A.) and Western New England College School of Law (J.D.), Russell is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

Publications

• Sick Leave Abuse Policy Found Not To Violate FMLA Employment Law Alert
• Russell Lichtenstein: Businesses must use revised form I-9
• New COBRA Subsidies Under The ARRA Cooper Levenson Enews Alert

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* AV Preeminent®: The highest peer rating standard. Martindale-Hubbell conducts a thorough review of attorneys  through a secure online peer review survey where a lawyer’s ethical standards and legal ability in a specific area of practice is assessed by their peers. Read more.

**Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, selects attorneys using “a patented multiphase selection process. Peer nominations and evaluations are combined with independent research.” Read more.