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At a Glance
| Founded by | Stephen and Judith Vladeck in 1949, originally as a union-side labor firm (per the firm) |
| Focus | Employee-side employment law exclusively, plus disability rights and criminal defense practices (per the firm) |
| Office | 565 Fifth Avenue, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10017 (Midtown Manhattan) |
| Signature results | Represented more than 60 loss-prevention supervisors and agents in a case against Abercrombie & Fitch (per the firm) |
| Distinctive edge | The firm states it never represents companies or managers, a policy it has maintained since converting from a union-side labor practice more than 75 years ago |
| Fee model | Not published on the firm’s site; prospective clients should confirm directly |
| Known for | Representing senior executives and professionals, from entry-level workers to C-suite, across finance, media, law, fashion, and academia (per the firm) |
Origin and Background
Vladeck, Raskin & Clark did not start out representing individual employees at all — it started representing unions. The firm states that Stephen and Judith Vladeck founded it in 1949 as a union-side labor practice, and while the firm still represents unions and employee benefit funds today, it has spent the decades since expanding into representing individual employees, from entry-level workers to senior executives, in discrimination, retaliation, and contract disputes. That union-side origin is unusual among New York employment boutiques, most of which were built from the start around individual plaintiff-side litigation rather than organized labor.
What Makes This Firm Structurally Different
The firm states plainly that it never represents companies or managers — a one-sided-representation policy it has held since its labor-firm founding, which removes any question of whether the firm might also take management-side work that could create a conflict. Partner Debra L. Raskin, who joined the firm in 1986 and later served as President of the New York City Bar Association from 2014 to 2016, is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has taught employment law at both Columbia and Fordham law schools, per her firm biography — the kind of bar-leadership credential that’s relatively rare even among senior employment litigators.
Practice Areas
- Employment discrimination (race, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion)
- Retaliation and wrongful termination
- Executive employment contract disputes
- Wage and hour claims
- Disability rights
- Union and employee benefit fund representation
Track Record
The firm states it represented more than 60 loss-prevention supervisors and agents in a case against retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. The firm’s own site notes that some of its most significant successes are settlements not publicized on its website or in reported decisions, meaning its published case list understates its actual results; Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify outcome figures for unpublished matters. Past results in any matter do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.
Client Voice
Awesome Attorneys did not identify a set of independently attributed, publicly posted client reviews specific to this firm as of the research date. The firm holds a Martindale-Hubbell Client Champion award, based on the platform’s own account, on the volume and quality of client reviews submitted through that service, though the individual reviews themselves were not independently locatable as of research.
Beyond the Courtroom
Debra Raskin has lectured and written on employment law for the New York State Bar Association and the Practising Law Institute, per her firm biography, and the firm’s attorneys regularly speak at continuing legal education programs run by the New York City Bar Association and the New York County Lawyers’ Association.
Recognition
The firm states it is recognized by Chambers & Partners and Martindale-Hubbell for its employment law practice. Associate Jeremiah Iadevaia was named to the 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers list and recognized as a “Labor & Employment Star” by Benchmark Litigation for the Northeast/New York region, according to his attorney biography. 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
Vladeck, Raskin & Clark’s clearest differentiator is longevity paired with a genuinely one-sided practice: a firm operating continuously since 1949 that states it has never represented a company or manager, with a named partner who led the New York City Bar Association and a track record the firm itself says is understated because so many of its wins are confidential settlements. The honest trade-off is that a firm this institution-rooted publishes relatively little in the way of a marketed, itemized results table, and Awesome Attorneys could not locate independently attributed client reviews to weigh against the firm’s own account of its history. For an employee, executive, or professional who wants a firm with genuine bar-leadership standing and three-quarters of a century of exclusively representing workers, that combination is a reasonable basis for a shortlist; someone who wants to see a public tally of settlement figures before hiring may find less to go on than at a more marketing-forward firm.
Methodology and Sourcing
This profile was researched from Vladeck, Raskin & Clark’s own website, including its firm history, employment law, and wage-and-hour pages, Debra L. Raskin’s and Jeremiah Iadevaia’s attorney biographies, and independent listings on Martindale-Hubbell, Super Lawyers, and Justia confirming office address and bar admissions.
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 Vladeck, Raskin & Clark, P.C. 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.