Adam Klein

Meeting of July 26, 2011 – EEOC to Examine Arrest and Conviction Records as a Hiring Barrier

ADAM T. KLEIN is a partner of Outten & Golden LLP and is the chair of the firm's class action practice group. His practice is limited to the prosecution of class action and impact litigation of employment discrimination and wage and hour claims.

Mr. Klein presently serves as lead or co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in numerous major class-action lawsuits involving statutory-discrimination claims in the financial services industry and challenges to the use of credit and criminal history records for employment. At present, Mr. Klein is co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in lawsuits challenging employment practices at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and the federal Census Bureau. The Census Bureau litigation 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 over 700,000 applicants. Mr. Klein also prosecutes wage and hour class/collective actions against numerous major corporations and was counsel in major settlements involving IBM, Whirlpool, JP Morgan Chase, and other Fortune 500 companies. In addition, Mr. Klein serves as co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in nationwide discrimination class action lawsuits against Smith Barney (gender - Amochaev v. Smith Barney) and Morgan Stanley (race - Jaffe v. Morgan Stanley). Both the Amochaev and Jaffe cases are now settled - each settlement provides class members with substantial monetary relief and systematic changes to company practices. Mr. Klein also served as co-lead plaintiffs' class counsel in "glass ceiling" gender discrimination class action against MetLife, based on discrimination in promotions and compensation. The term of the MetLife settlement agreement has expired.

Mr. Klein has testified before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Congress on issues relating to employment law. Mr. Klein is a frequent lecturer and has participated in programs relating to employment law sponsored by the American Constitutional Society, the Institute for Judicial Administration, the American Bar Association, Cornell University, Georgetown University Law School, New York University Law School, the Law and Education Institute, the Practicing Law Institute, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the Bar Association of the City of New York, the Impact Fund, the American Conference Institute, and Strafford Publications.

Mr. Klein was selected by his peers in Best Lawyers in America and New York's Super Lawyers - Manhattan Edition 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. Mr. Klein is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), served on the Executive Board of its New York Affiliate (NELA/NY) from 2000 to 2006, and is the former co-chair of the Class Action Committee of NELA. He served on the Executive Board of the Employee Rights Section of the American Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Klein is a member of the American Bar Association, where he served as the Plaintiffs' Co-Chair of the Committee on Technology and Federal Law Clerks Training Program, and is a member of the Committees on Equal Employment Opportunity and Employee Rights and Responsibilities of the Section of Labor and Employment Law and the Class Action and Derivative Suits Committee of the Section of Litigation. Mr. Klein is the immediate past plaintiffs' co-chair of the largest Committee within the Labor and Employment Section - the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. Mr. Klein is a Member of the Executive Board of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and is also a member of the Federal Bar Council, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board of the Labor and Employment Law Program and Board of Directors of the Alumni Association of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, and a member of the Advisory Board of the National Wage and Hour Clearinghouse.

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. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1991.

Mr. Klein is admitted in New York and in the federal Second, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits and the Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of New York.