Partners

Rick Ostrove is the lead trial counsel for Leeds Morelli and Brown, P.C.  He has been lead trial counsel in over twenty-five jury trials in both federal and state court.  Although his primary practice is in the area of civil rights law, Rick has tried a number of commercial cases, including a complex trademark claim brought pursuant to the Federal Lanham Act.  This recent action involved fifty-seven witnesses and thirty-two experts.  After closing statements, United States District Judge Leonard D. Wexler stated on the record that Rick's trial performance was fantastic, superb, and excellent.

 Rick was also lead trial counsel in Quinn v. Nassau County, the first case where a court held that workplace harassment of a municipal employee based on sexual orientation violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.  Additionally, he handled the case of Manning v. Nassau County, in which another court agreed with this holding and a jury awarded his client $1,500,000.00 in emotional damages.

 Rick is the current Vice-Chairperson of the Nassau County Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law committee and is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA).  He recently published an article in the Nassau Law Journal regarding employment law.  He is admitted to practice in all New York Courts as well as the United States Supreme Court, and he has successfully argued a number of appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

 Rick regularly appears as a speaker regarding civil rights issues.  He has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, Court TV, and other media outlets.  One of his trial victories that garnered national attention was featured on ABC's 20/20.  In the last two years, he has lectured about employment law at continuing legal education classes hosted by the New York City Bar Association, the Nassau County Bar Association, and the Suffolk County Bar Association.   He has also lectured at the annual convention of Gender Pac (a Washington D.C. based organization dedicated to eradicating all forms of gender discrimination), as well as at the American Conference Institutes' annual conference for Employment Practices Liability Insurance, Eastern-Suffolk BOCES, Chubb Insurance Company, and The Greens' Men's Club.

 Rick joined Leeds Morelli & Brown in 1996 and became a partner in 2000.  Rick graduated summa cum laude from Hofstra University School of Law, where he was a member of the Hofstra Law Review.  Rick also holds a Bachelor's Degree of Science in Business Administration from the University at Albany, where he graduated cum laude.