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Noa Baddish

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Noa M. Baddish is a senior counsel in the Labor & Employment Law Department. She is a member of the Sports, Employment Litigation & Arbitration, Class and Collective Action, Wage & Hour and Whistleblower & Retaliation Practice Groups. Noa is also the Administrative Lead of the Class, Collective and Complex Action Practice Group.

Noa specializes in defending employers in various industries, such as sports, media and entertainment, on a wide variety of matters. With a particular focus on class and collective actions, Noa has successfully defended numerous organizations against complex employment-related claims. Noa’s approach to class and collective action defense is rooted in a thorough understanding of both federal and state employment laws. Noa’s expertise spans topics ranging from wage and hour disputes to discrimination and harassment claims. Noa is well-versed in the intricacies of class and collective action procedures, which allows her to provide comprehensive defense strategies tailored to each client’s objectives and circumstances.

Noa also has experience navigating proceedings before government agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), including Commissioner Charges and those involving complex, large-scale issues such as claims of pattern or practice discrimination.

Noa also works closely with clients to develop proactive compliance strategies, focused on minimizing the risk of litigation. Noa has particular expertise in advising clients on how to conduct reorganizations or restructuring of businesses, otherwise known as “RIFs” and is experienced in all of the technicalities that come along with these types of group-wide employment actions.

Noa was recognized as a Rising Star by New York Super Lawyers from 2015 through 2020. She has authored and contributed to several articles and newsletters on employment and labor topics, including “Managing Legal and Reputational Risks When Right-sizing Your Workforce,” LegalDive (December 2022), “Mediating Employment Disputes,” LexisNexis (June 2019), “Supreme Court Says that Equitable Tolling Cannot Extend Rule 23(f) Deadline,” Proskauer’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Blog (February 2019), “FLSA Turns 80: The Evolution of ‘Employee’ Status,” LAW360 (June 2018), and “CFTC Whistleblower Awards On The Horizon,” Proskauer’s Corporate Defense and Disputes Blog (May 2015).

Prior to coming to Proskauer, Noa served as Assistant General Counsel to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations and defended the Mayor and City agencies against both employee grievances at arbitration and improper practice petitions before the Board of Collective Bargaining. Prior to that, she was a Law Clerk to Judge Ellen L. Koblitz of the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court.

While in law school, Noa served on the Executive Board as Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham Urban Law Journal.

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In a recent interview with Law360 (subscription required), Chris Ehrman, the Director of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Whistleblower Office, predicted that the number and size of the CFTC’s whistleblower awards will increase in the near future. Ehrman also said that the agency will conduct “straight marketing” to ensure that potential whistleblowers are aware of the agency’s whistleblower bounty program.

The CFTC’s Whistleblower Program is similar to the SEC’s program in that whistleblowers who voluntarily provide the CFTC with original information about violations of the Commodity Exchange Act resulting in a $1 million or greater recovery are eligible to receive 10 to 30 percent of the monies collected. Ehrman acknowledged that the CFTC’s whistleblower program, which paid its first award in May 2014 and has received only 227 whistleblower tips in fiscal year 2014 versus the SEC’s 3,620, has gotten off to a slower start than the SEC’s program. Ehrman attributes the slow start to the fact that the CFTC, which is limited to regulating the commodities industry, has a “smaller footprint than the SEC.” Ehrman also noted that, unlike the SEC, the CFTC does not have the authority to enforce Dodd-Frank’s anti-retaliation provision.

On March 2, 2015, the SEC announced  an expected award SEC logoof $475,000 to $575,000 to a former company officer “who reported original, high-quality information about a securities fraud that resulted in an SEC enforcement action with sanctions exceeding $1 million.”  The officer reported information to the SEC more than 120 days after other responsible compliance personnel at the company in possession of the information purportedly failed to adequately address the issue.  This is the first of its kind under the SEC’s whistleblower program, and the first award announced this year.

Guest Post from Proskauer’s Whistleblower Defense Blog.
Written By Steven J. Pearlman, Lloyd Chinn, Harris Mufson and Noa Baddish on November 12, 2014

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Verfuerth v. Orion Energy Systems, Inc., No. 14-cv-352 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 4, 2014) recently ruled that the Dodd-Frank whistleblower protection provision does not protect employees who only report alleged violations of the securities laws internally. In dismissing a former CEO’s whistleblower retaliation claim, the court followed the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Asadi v. F.E. Energy (USA), L.L.C., 720 F.3d 620 (5th Cir. 2013) and held that the text of the statute requires that a “whistleblower” report an alleged violation to the SEC to be covered by Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower protection provision.