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At a Glance
| Founded by | Derek T. Smith in 1995, the year he was admitted to the New York bar, after earning his J.D. from Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law in 1994 (per the firm) |
| Focus | Plaintiff-side, employee-only representation in sexual harassment, workplace discrimination, and retaliation matters, plus related civil rights and sexual abuse litigation (per the firm) |
| Office | The Nelson Tower, 450 7th Avenue, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10123 (Midtown Manhattan, above Penn Station) |
| Signature results | Firm states it has secured more than $400 million in settlements and verdicts, including what it describes as the largest emotional distress jury verdict ever sustained on appeal in a U.S. employment case (per the firm) |
| Distinctive edge | One of the largest plaintiff-only employment discrimination firms by attorney count, with eight offices nationwide feeding a New York trial practice built around jury verdicts rather than early settlement (per the firm) |
| Fee model | Contingency — no fee unless the firm recovers for the client (per the firm) |
| Known for | Sexual harassment and hostile work environment litigation, high-profile discrimination verdicts, and representation of clients ranging from blue-collar workers to public figures (per the firm) |
Derek T. Smith has practiced exclusively on the employee side of the docket since 1995, the same year he was admitted to the New York bar after graduating from Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law. Three decades later, the firm he founded has grown into one of the larger plaintiff-only employment discrimination practices in the country by attorney headcount, anchored by a Midtown Manhattan office in the Nelson Tower, directly above Penn Station.
Origin and Background
Smith earned his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1991 and, according to his own biography, studied at the Université de Droit, d’Économie, et des Sciences d’Aix-Marseille in France before completing his J.D. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1995 and founded the firm that same year, focusing from the outset on sexual harassment and discrimination cases rather than building a general employment or civil litigation practice first and adding a discrimination docket later. That singular focus, sustained for three decades, is one of the more specific and verifiable origin facts among New York plaintiff-side employment firms, many of which pivoted into employment law from a broader personal injury or civil litigation base.
What Makes This Firm Structurally Different
The firm operates eight offices — New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. — a footprint that is unusually broad for a firm built around a single named founder rather than a merger of regional practices. The firm states this lets it take on nationwide discrimination and harassment matters, including cases against major corporations and public figures, while keeping New York as its flagship trial office. Smith separately maintains a distinct mediation practice, serving as a Harvard Law School-trained, Cornell-certified neutral in employment disputes; in that separate role he mediates matters for both employees and employers, a detail the firm’s own materials disclose and one Awesome Attorneys is likewise disclosing here, since it differs from the firm’s litigation practice, which represents employees exclusively.
Practice Areas
- Sexual harassment (quid pro quo and hostile work environment)
- Employment discrimination (race, gender, age, disability, national origin, sexual orientation)
- Retaliation and wrongful termination
- Wage and hour disputes
- Civil rights litigation
- Sexual assault and sexual abuse litigation (including student and non-employment matters)
Track Record
The firm states it has secured more than $400 million in settlements and verdicts for clients and that Smith personally holds what the firm describes as the largest emotional distress jury verdict ever sustained on appeal in a U.S. employment discrimination case. The firm’s own materials also cite two individual verdicts of $2.5 million and $1.6 million in sexual harassment and discrimination matters, and a single settlement in excess of $15 million on behalf of one client. These are the firm’s own characterizations of matters and outcomes; Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify the underlying verdict records or the “largest ever sustained on appeal” superlative against a comprehensive national database of appellate employment verdicts. Past results in any matter do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.
Client Voice
Client accounts published on the firm’s own site describe attorneys as attentive through difficult, emotionally fraught matters; one client wrote that after being terminated on the basis of discrimination, the attorney handling the case “listened to all of my concerns and navigated me through a challenging process,” while another described an attorney on a sexual assault matter as consistently available and communicative “every step of the way.” These are firm-published testimonials rather than independently sourced or third-party-verified reviews, and Awesome Attorneys treats them accordingly — as representative of the firm’s own presentation of its client relationships rather than confirmed, verifiable accounts.
Beyond the Courtroom
Smith serves as a judge for the Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Competition and the Charles W. Froessel Intramural Moot Court Competition, and holds memberships in the National Employment Lawyers Association, its New York and Philadelphia chapters, and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, per his professional biography.
Recognition
Derek T. Smith has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a top-rated New York employment and labor attorney, and the firm cites recognition across the multiple state bars in which it practices, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and California. 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 Smith or any attorney at this firm on that basis; the credentials above are peer-nomination rankings, not government-conferred certifications.
New York Legal Backdrop
Employment discrimination and sexual harassment 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 anti-discrimination statutes. Following 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); sexual harassment claims specifically have carried a three-year NYSHRL limitations period since 2020. None of this is legal advice; a specific claim should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts and filing deadlines involved.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Derek Smith Law Group’s clearest differentiator is three uninterrupted decades of exclusively plaintiff-side sexual harassment and discrimination work, scaled to eight offices while keeping New York as its flagship trial office. The honest trade-off is that a firm built around jury verdicts and headline-generating cases, with a founder who has cultivated a national media presence, is not necessarily the right fit for an employee who wants the most discreet, low-visibility path to a quiet resolution; the firm’s own published matters emphasize trial results and large verdicts over quiet, confidential settlements. For an employee who has experienced serious harassment or discrimination and wants a firm with a long, singular track record in exactly that kind of case, Derek Smith Law Group is a reasonable one to have on a shortlist.
Methodology and Sourcing
This profile was researched from the firm’s own website (discriminationandsexualharassmentlawyers.com), including its firm overview, attorney biography, and testimonials pages, cross-referenced against Derek T. Smith’s Super Lawyers profile, Justia and Lawyers.com attorney listings, and Martindale-Hubbell’s New York office listing.
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 Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC 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.
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