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At a Glance
| Founded by | Robert Ottinger in December 1999, initially run from a one-bedroom apartment in Jersey City, after government trial careers in California and New York (per the firm) |
| Focus | Employee-side employment law exclusively, with a dedicated executive practice for severance and contract negotiation (per the firm) |
| Office | 79 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 (Midtown Manhattan), with additional California offices |
| Signature results | Founder states he won all 14 of his jury trials as an Assistant Attorney General in the New York Attorney General’s employment section before entering private practice (per the firm) |
| Distinctive edge | A 25-plus-year boutique that has handled only employee-side matters since founding, treating each case, per the founder, like a story with a documented “cast of characters” and fact chronology |
| Fee model | Not published on the firm’s site; prospective clients should confirm directly |
| Known for | Executive severance and contract negotiation, discrimination and retaliation claims, and wage and hour disputes across finance, tech, and entertainment (per the firm) |
Origin and Background
Robert Ottinger opened his firm in December 1999 and ran it, at first, from a one-bedroom apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey — a detail the firm publishes on its own site rather than burying. Before that, per his firm biography and independent attorney-directory profiles, he clerked for a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, spent three years as a Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice trying juvenile and gang cases in South Central Los Angeles, and then joined the New York Attorney General’s office as an Assistant Attorney General in the civil division’s employment section, where he states he won all 14 of his cases that went to jury trial. The firm has operated continuously since, adding California offices in 2009 while keeping its New York practice at 79 Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
What Makes This Firm Structurally Different
Ottinger Employment Lawyers has done one thing for more than 25 years: represent employees, never employers. The founder has described the firm’s method in unusually concrete terms — each case gets a “cast of characters” document, a fact chronology, and a hot-document list, treating litigation preparation like assembling a story for trial — and the firm states it runs an online case-management system that clients can access directly to view their own case documents, a transparency practice that remains uncommon among small plaintiff-side firms.
Practice Areas
- Employment discrimination and retaliation
- Wrongful termination
- Executive severance and employment contract negotiation
- Sexual harassment
- Whistleblower claims
- Wage, overtime, commission, and bonus disputes
Track Record
The firm does not publish an itemized verdict-and-settlement table with dollar figures; instead it describes representative matters by category, stating it has won cases for, among others, a waitress sexually harassed by kitchen staff, an investment banker discharged because of his age, sales representatives cheated out of owed commissions, and a legal assistant discharged due to pregnancy, along with executive severance negotiations. These are the firm’s own characterizations of matters it says it handled; Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify individual outcomes. Past results in any matter do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.
Client Voice
Client reviews published on the firm’s own site include one from a reviewer identified as Megan I. describing Robert Ottinger as “responsive, professional, knowledgeable and above all effective” in his advice and representation. Because these reviews appear on the firm’s own site rather than a fully independent platform, Awesome Attorneys treats them as firm-published testimonials; independently posted reviews also appear on Yelp for the firm’s Madison Avenue office.
Beyond the Courtroom
The firm publishes an extensive library of plain-English employment law guides on its own site, covering topics such as severance negotiation, independent contractor classification, and minimum wage rules, aimed at employees researching their situations before hiring counsel.
Recognition
Awesome Attorneys did not identify formal peer-review rankings such as Chambers & Partners or Best Lawyers tied to this firm as of the research date; the firm’s public reputation rests primarily on longevity, client reviews, and its founder’s documented government trial record rather than directory awards. New York does not maintain a formal board-certification system for employment law comparable to Texas’s TBLS, so Awesome Attorneys does not apply “specialist” language to any attorney at this firm on that basis.
New York Legal Backdrop
Employment discrimination claims in New York can generally be brought under the New York State Human Rights Law (Executive Law § 296) and the New York City Human Rights Law (NYC Administrative Code § 8-107), both broader in coverage than federal law. As of a 2023 amendment effective February 15, 2024, most NYSHRL discrimination and retaliation claims carry a three-year statute of limitations, matching the NYCHRL’s three-year window for civil actions (NYC Admin. Code § 8-502). Federal Title VII claims generally require an EEOC charge within 300 days in New York, given the state and city’s overlapping anti-discrimination laws. None of this is legal advice; a specific employment dispute should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts and filing deadlines involved.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Ottinger Employment Lawyers’ clearest differentiator is a founder with a documented government trial pedigree — a perfect stated jury-trial record at the New York Attorney General’s employment section — running a boutique that has represented only employees for more than 25 years, with an unusually transparent, client-accessible case-management approach. The honest trade-off is that the firm publishes no itemized results table and holds no major directory rankings, so a prospective client has less independently verifiable outcome data to evaluate than at larger, more decorated plaintiff-side firms. For an executive negotiating a severance package or an employee with a discrimination or wage claim who values direct access to a small, experienced team, this firm’s longevity and trial background make it a reasonable one to have on a shortlist; someone whose case may need the resources of a large class-action operation will likely need a bigger firm.
Methodology and Sourcing
This profile was researched from Ottinger Employment Lawyers’ own website, including its firm history, New York office, and Robert Ottinger’s attorney biography, cross-referenced against independent profiles on Lawyer Legion, PitchBook, and Yelp confirming founding date, office address, and the founder’s government trial background.
Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice
Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Ottinger Employment Lawyers prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any profiled firm, and inclusion in this directory is not a paid placement. “Awesome Attorneys” is a brand name only and does not constitute a rating or ranking claim. Facts stated are current only as of this profile’s research date.