Adam Klein

ADAM T. KLEIN is the Managing Partner of Outten & Golden LLP and founded the firm's class action practice area. His practice focuses on the prosecution of class actions and impact litigation relating to race, gender, and immigration-based statutory discrimination. In addition, Mr. Klein has extensive experience litigating race and restorative justice cases concerning the criminal justice system and resulting collateral consequences in the workplace and in other contexts. Mr. Klein currently serves as lead or co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in numerous major class action lawsuits involving discrimination claims in the financial services industry, the high-tech industry, and credit and criminal history records for employment decisions. Mr. Klein is co-lead plaintiffs’ class counsel in a gender discrimination lawsuit challenging pay and promotion outcomes at Goldman Sachs that is scheduled for trial in 2023. Mr. Klein currently represents applicants and institutional plaintiffs focusing on the discriminatory impact of “AI” and automated recruiting and selection tools in the workplace - particularly relating to sourcing of candidates on the Facebook platform and on other social media. 

Mr. Klein is lead class counsel in a now concluded lawsuit against the Census Bureau, which was filed in affiliation with a consortium of civil-rights organizations challenging the use of arrest and criminal history records as a screen for employment for 850,000 applicants. In 2016, the parties reached a landmark settlement with the federal government that requires the Census Bureau to reform its hiring practices for the 2020 decennial census as well as creating a class-member Records Assistance Project housed at the Cornell University ILR School and in coordination with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The Census Bureau legal team led by Mr. Klein won the Public Justice 2017 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award.  

Mr. Klein is a past Co-Chair of the Executive Board of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. For numerous years, Mr. Klein has been selected as one of the Lawdragon 500 leading lawyers in America as well as Best Lawyers in America, New York’s Super Lawyers – Manhattan Edition, and as a member of the Hall of Fame in the Legal 500. Mr. Klein is a Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers. Mr. Klein received his undergraduate degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in 1987 and his law degree from Hofstra University in 1990.