Lecturer Bios
Louis Pechman, Esq.
Louis Pechman represents both employers and employees before federal
and state courts and government agencies in all areas of workplace law,
including employment discrimination, union-management relations,
employment contracts, ERISA, non-competition agreements, independent
contractor issues, and wage/hour disputes. As a practitioner for over twenty
years in the labor and employment field, Mr. Pechman offers both individual
employees and employers practical guidance on improving the employment
relationship and, where appropriate, terminating that relationship.
Prior to forming his partnership ten years ago with Laurie Berke-Weiss,
Mr. Pechman has worked as a labor and employment attorney at three
Manhattan law firms, as in-house labor counsel with the New York Daily News,
and as a Field Examiner with the National Labor Relations Board. Admitted to
the New York and New Jersey Bars, he is a graduate of the Cornell University
School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Fordham University School of
Law.
A frequent contributor to the New York Law Journal and other business
and legal publications, Mr. Pechman often gives presentations on employment
law topics, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, sexual harassment,
and the development of human resource policies and procedures. He has
lectured at the Fordham University School of Law, New York University, the
Extension Division of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor
Relations, and the American Bar Association. From 1994 through 1998, he was
Chair of the New York County Lawyers' Association Committee on Labor
Relations and Employment Law. Since 1996, Mr. Pechman has developed and
moderated NYCLA's annual program on "How to Handle an Employment
Discrimination Case."
Hon. Sarah L. Cave
Sarah L. Cave was sworn in as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York on October 1, 2019. Judge Cave received a B.A. from Colgate University in 1995, magna cum laude, and in 1997, received a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a Note Editor for the Journal of Law Reform.
From January 2007 until her appointment, Judge Cave was a litigation partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York City, where her practice focused on securities litigation, bankruptcy litigation, and accountants’ liability. During her tenure in private practice, Judge Cave was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Circuits, as well as the Southern, Eastern, Western and Northern District Courts. Before joining Hughes Hubbard in 2002, Judge Cave clerked for the Honorable Joan A. Lenard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and served as a Staff Law Clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Judge Cave is actively involved in the Federal Bar Council, where she chaired the Second Circuit Courts Committee, served on the Strategic Planning Committee, served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Foundation, and now serves on the Editorial Board of the FBC Quarterly. She served terms as Chair and Vice President of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Committee to Encourage Judicial Service of the New York City Bar Association. From 2013 to 2018, she was a member of the New York State Bar Association President’s Committee on Access to Justice. Judge Cave served in several pro bono and community organizations, including The Legal Aid Society, on whose Board of Directors she served, as well as The Friends of Governor’s Island and the First Step Program of the Coalition for the Homeless. From 2013 to 2014, she was a Fellow in the David Rockefeller Fellows Program of the Partnership for New York City. Since taking the bench, she has been active in the Second Circuit’s civic education initiatives, including co-organizing the Justice For All Summer Teachers’ Institute and judging moot court programs.
In 2012, Crain’s New York Business recognized Judge Cave as one of the Leading Women Lawyers in New York City, and the New York Law Journal designated her as a “Lawyer Who Leads By Example.” In 2015, she became a member of the American Law Institute, and she received the Legal Aid Society’s Public Interest Law Leadership Award. She is a ten-time recipient of the Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Publico Award.
Bryn Goodman, Esq.
Bryn focuses her practice on guiding employers and management on all aspects of employment law, with experience in a variety of industries including hospitality, insurance, finance, architecture, healthcare and technology.
Bryn works collaboratively with clients to develop creative solutions that work for each business and comply with the law.
When a dispute arises, she represents employers in state and federal lawsuits and administrative proceedings involving wage-and-hour, discrimination and sexual harassment claims. Bryn has extensive experience in litigation including hearings, motion practice and discovery. Her particular skills also include negotiating and drafting settlements and representing clients at mediations and settlement conferences.
Bryn frequently advises clients on compliance with local, state and federal laws regarding hiring and termination, discipline, discrimination, retaliation and wages. She works closely with clients to draft and revise handbooks and policies, as well as employment, separation, confidentiality and non-competition agreements. She also conducts anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and diversity training.
In addition, Bryn has represented insurers in various coverage and liability matters.
D. Maimon Kirschenbaum, Esq.
D. Maimon Kirschenbaum represents employees in wage/hour cases, discrimination cases and severance negotiations a wide range of sectors, including the hospitality, financial services, medical services, real estate and tech industries. Maimon has successfully taken on employers ranging in size from Fortune 500 Companies to "mom and pop" local businesses.
From an early point in his career, Maimon has been recognized in the media as a "wunderkind of the plaintiff's bar" and the "patron saint of stiffed waiters." Now a partner at the law firm of Joseph & Kirschenbaum LLP, he is well known throughout the restaurant and hospitality industry and its lawyers as a dedicated and effective advocate for workers who experienced wage and tip theft, wage and hour violations, employment discrimination, and other unfair and illegal employment practices. He is a nationally recognized class action litigator who has represented tens of thousands of victims of wage theft. His numerous notable cases include some of the largest reported recoveries in wage and hour lawsuits in the state's history.
His remarkable work has drawn the attention of numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Crain's New York Business, New York Magazine, the International Herald-Tribune, The American Lawyer, Fox Business and CNN. He is recognized as the "scourge of restaurateurs" who sought to pad their own profits by denying their workers tips and other compensation to which they are legally entitled. Through his zeal and dedication to low-earning and frequently undocumented workers, Maimon has shown and continues to show New York employers that exploiting their workers comes with serious consequences.
In addition to the tremendous success and renown Maimon has earned in this niche area, restaurant industry wage theft is certainly not the only facet of his practice. He also represents victims of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination with litigation and severance negotiations in virtually all sectors of employment. He is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and is a frequent speaker on both employment law in general and specifically on his experience fighting for marginalized workers in the restaurant and hospitality industry.
In September of 2014 Maimon was selected by Super Lawyers® as a Rising Star in the New York legal community. Super Lawyers® is an independent legal publication that utilizes a patented selection process to identify and honor the highest quality lawyers in the legal profession. A Rising Star must be under the age of 40 or have been in the practice of law for less than 10 years. Fewer than five percent of attorneys are named as Super Lawyers® and fewer than 2.5 percent are named as Rising Stars.
Elena Paraskevas-Thadani, Esq.
EPT Legal, LLC was founded by Elena Paraskevas-Thadani, an experienced employment attorney with
over 20 years experience in the legal profession, specializing in resolving workplace challenges and
disputes.
Elena is an experienced trainer having conducted and developed hundreds of Equal Employment
Opportunity trainings on professional conduct, nonharassment, diversity, litigation avoidance and other
employment compliance topics. Elena brings over two decades of litigation experience to her
compliance trainings, and develops and delivers fun, educational, interactive and customized programs
for her clients.
Elena has worked with hundreds of companies to conduct sensitive workplace investigations involving
allegations of discrimination, harassment, misconduct or wrongdoing against C-Level and other
executives. Elena is an Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH) and is
licensed by New York State as a Private Investigator.
Elena is an experienced arbitrator and mediator certified by the United States District Court for the
Southern District of New York and by the New York Peace Institute. She specializes in mediating prelitigation matters when parties are still in the workplace and employment cases such as wage and hour
disputes, discrimination, whistleblower, restrictive covenant and class action lawsuits. She serves on the
United States District Court Eastern District of New York mediation and arbitration panels.
In addition to her experience in private practice, Elena served as a law clerk to two federal judges, The
Honorable Andrew J. Peck, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
(2000-2002) and The Honorable Nicholas Tsoucalas of the US Court of International Trade
(1997-1999), and a student law clerk while in law school to United States District Court Judge Frederic
Block and Magistrate A. Simon Chrein. During her tenure in the courts and in private practice
Elena worked on hundreds of hearings, trials, arbitrations and mediations.
As a certified and experienced executive coach, Elena has assisted company leaders, C-Level
executives, law firm partners and service professionals manage their teams more effectively, build their
influence in their field, and increase their business development success. Elena is an adjunct coach with
Skillful Means Marketing, LLC, voted the #1 coaching service for attorneys in a recent New York Law
Journal survey, among other awards and accolades.
Elena previously practiced plaintiffs’ and defendants’ general commercial litigation and employment
law at Katten Muchin Rosenman (2002-2005) and Seward and Kissel LLP (1999-2000). She worked
for Kaplan Fox, a plaintiffs’ class action law firm as a summer associate in 1996.
Elena is a former equity partner of the law firm Littler Mendelson, the largest global employment and
labor law practice in the world. She is a graduate of Fordham College (’95) and Fordham Law School
(’97). While at Fordham Law, Elena founded the Fordham Law Chapter of the Unemployment Action
Center, through which she provided pro bono advocacy to unemployment insurance claimants, and also
worked as a student advocate at the Northern Manhattan Improvement Center, where she provided
services and representation to public assistance applicants and recipients. Elena also served as an intern
with EDNY Judge Frederic Block (1995), EDNY Magistrate Judge A. Simon Chrein (1996) and the
EDNY US Attorney’s office (1996-1997). She is admitted to practice in New York Connecticut and the
District of Columbia.
