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."
Gregory S. Chiarello, Esq.
GREGORY S. CHIARELLO is an associate at Outten & Golden LLP in New York. He is Co-chair of the Family Responsibilities & Disabilities Discrimination Practice Group and a member of the Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Practice Group. He represents employees in litigation and negotiation in all areas of employment law, including discrimination, retaliation, wage & hour violations, unpaid bonus claims, professional contracts, and executive compensation.
Prior to joining the firm in August 2014, Mr. Chiarello was an associate attorney at Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C., where he litigated a variety of employment matters in state and federal court. Before that, Mr. Chiarello represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal as a staff attorney at the Office of the Appellate Defender, arguing more than 20 appeals in the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.
Mr. Chiarello received his B.A. with highest honors from Rutgers University in 2001, and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 2006, where he was a Carswell Merit Scholar. While in law school, Mr. Chiarello interned with a number of public interest organizations, including with the Legal Aid Society Guilty Plea Appellate Project, where he drafted an amicus brief in a matter pending before the New York State Court of Appeals.
Hollis Pfitsch
Hollis Pfitsch is Deputy Commissioner of the Law Enforcement Bureau of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. From 2006-2015, Hollis was a Staff Attorney in The Legal Aid Society's Employment Law Unit. She began her tenure at Legal Aid as a Skadden fellow after clerking for Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis in the Southern District of New York. She received her J.D. from CUNY School of Law. Hollis has served as a member of the New York City Bar Association's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Committee and the conference committee for the National Employment Lawyers' Association - New York chapter. She is also an occasional adjunct professor at CUNY School of Law.