Derek Smith has practiced sexual harassment and discrimination law for over 25 years. He has obtained the largest emotional distress jury verdict ever to be sustained on appeal in the entire United States for an employment law case.
From Derek: “A lawyer once told me many years ago not to get so emotionally involved in my cases. Well, I think the complete opposite is true! It makes me furious when to hear stories of employers discriminating against or sexually harassing their employees! If an employer treats you differently because of your race, religion, age, gender or disability, I say, “How dare they??!” If your boss sexually harasses you or compels you to have a sexual relationship of any kind, I am outraged! We like to become one with our clients. We represent them, and they represent us. We are a team. That is our philosophy. We are personally offended when injustice is done to our clients. So, to that lawyer, who said that many years ago to me, I say that you are so, very, very wrong! It is that emotional attachment to our cases that helps us to better represent our clients and get them the most that we can on their case. That is how we have obtained many, multi-million dollar jury verdicts and many multi-million dollar settlements for our clients. The results speak for themselves.”
Attorney Derek Smith is an experienced labor & employment law litigator who has particular experience in the areas of workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, civil rights litigation, employment law, and civil litigation. Attorney Smith received his J.D. in 1994 from the Dickinson School of Law, his B.A. in 1991 from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., and studied at the Université de Droit, d’Économie, et des Sciences d’Aix-Marseille in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Attorney Derek T. Smith is admitted to the state bars of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Attorney Smith is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association (“NELA”), National Employment Lawyers Association of New York (“NELA/NY”), New York State Trial Lawyers (“NYSTLA”) and practices in the New York, Florida, New Jersey, and Philadelphia offices.
Attorney Smith is also a Judge in the annual Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Competition as well as a Judge in the Charles W. Froessel Intramural Moot Court Competition.
Attorney Smith has personally litigated and resolved numerous high profile cases against multi-billion dollar corporations and has attained the highest employment law verdicts in workplace discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits, with his clients receiving millions in damages in these cases.
Derek T. Smith is fluent in English and French.
