Partners

Rick Ostrove

Carle Place, New York
Lead Trial Counsel for the firm
phone 1-800-585-4658
           212-661-4370
           516-873-9550
fax     (516) 747-5024

Rick Ostrove is the lead trial counsel for Leeds Morelli and Brown, P.C. In the last six months, he has tried five cases and won all five, with jury verdicts totaling over Twenty Two Million Dollars ($22,500,000). One of these was a Fifteen Million Dollar ($15,000,000) verdict in a sexual harassment case, the highest award to an individual plaintiff in an employment discrimination claim in the history of New York State and one of the highest in the Country. Another of his victories is listed in Verdict Search’s Top New York Verdicts of 2008 and he expects to be listed in that publication again in 2009.

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 approximately twenty expert reports. After closing statements, United States District Judge Leonard D. Wexler stated on the record that Rick’s trial performance was ''fantastic'', ''superb'', and ''excellent.'' Judge Wexler added in his published post-trial decision, ''[t]his case was highly contested and well tried by all counsel. Indeed, the court is hard pressed to recall a trial in which the claims of the parties was so competently and clearly presented by counsel to a jury. The jury was presented with compelling factual and capable expert evidence by both sides.''

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 tried Manning v. Nassau County, in which another court agreed with this holding and a jury awarded his client $1,500,000 in emotional damages.

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 is the current 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 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 joined Leeds Morelli & Brown in 1996 and became a partner in 2000. Rick graduated seventh in his class 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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z60xJobzGA

Year Joined Organization:

• 1996

Areas of Practice:

• Employment Discrimination Law
• Employment Law / Employee/Employer / Disability Discrimination
• Sexual Harassment / Racial Discrimination / Religious, Sexual & Age Discrimination
• Commercial Litigation
• Divorce / Family Law / Child Support / Child Custody / Domestic Partnerships
• Probate Administration / Contested & Uncontested Estates / Wills / Trusts
• Prevailing Wage / City / State / Federal
• Criminal / DUI / DWI / Federal / State / Traffic / White Collar Crimes

Bar Admissions:

• New York
• U.S. Supreme Court

Education:

• Hofstra University School of Law, Hempstead, New York
  Law Review: Hofstra Review, Member
• University at Albany
  Bachelor's Degree of Science
  Honors: Cum Laude
  Major: Business Administration

Published Works:

• Employment Law, Nassau Law Journal

Representative Cases:

• Quinn v. Nassau County
• Manning v. Nassau County

Classes/Seminars Taught:

• Speaker, Civil Rights Issues
• Lectured, Employment Law, Nassau County Bar Association
• Lectured, Employment Law, Suffolk County Bar Association
• Lectured, Employment Law, New York City Bar Association
• Lectured, Annual Convention of Gender Pac
• Lectured, Employment Practices Liability Insurance, American Conference Institutes
• Lectured, Employment Practices Liability Insurance, Chubb Insurance Company
• Lectured, Employment Practices Liability Insurance, The Greens' Men's Club
• Lectured, Employment Practices Liability Insurance, Eastern-Suffolk BOCES

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Nassau County Bar Association
  Vice-Chairperson, Labor and Employment Law Committee
• National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
  Member

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