Patricia M. Prezioso is Chair of the Sills Cummis & Gross Employment and
Labor Practice Group. She is an active
litigator and counselor, with her practice focusing on assisting businesses
with issues relating to their employees, including defending claims and
lawsuits brought by employees against their employers, sexual harassment and
discrimination, whistleblower, New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act
(“CEPA”), defending or enforcing restrictive covenants, and claims arising from
the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and Equal Pay Act. Ms. Prezioso
investigates and litigates claims concerning unfair competition and the
misappropriation of confidential information. Ms. Prezioso also offers
counseling on employee claims, strategies for mitigating risk, as well as
assistance with employee hiring and separating, employee discipline, leave
requests, worker classification, protecting confidential information, wage and
hour issues, and handbook, policy, and agreement development, implementation,
and enforcement.
Ms. Prezioso understands that businesses need not only
excellent work product, but attention to both billing efficiency and minimizing
business disruption. With litigation matters, this means strategizing to
position the company for the best achievable result while considering both cost
and business impact. For those matters
where a trial is necessary, Ms. Prezioso uses her broad and notable trial
experience to make sure her client’s voice is clearly heard in the
courtroom.
Ms. Prezioso also assists businesses and entities with
in-house investigations, responding to government subpoenas and defense of
criminal allegations. Ms. Prezioso has extensive experience in matters
involving government or administrative agency investigations, including before the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the New York State Division of
Human Rights and the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, and defending
businesses and entities from liability claims relating to alleged intentional
acts of its employees or agents.
Ms. Prezioso’s experience in the public sector has provided
her with unique investigative and prosecutorial insight that she applies to
defending her clients. Before entering private practice, she worked for the New
Jersey Attorney General’s Office – Division of Criminal Justice, serving as
Chief of Law Enforcement Services, Deputy Director and Executive Assistant
Attorney General. She was the lead prosecutor in State v. McGuire, one of New Jersey’s most infamous murder trials.
Ms. Prezioso also served as an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan
District Attorney’s Office, where she was both a designated homicide assistant
and a member of the Sex Crimes Unit. She was honored by the State of New Jersey
and the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety with “Professional
Achievement” awards and received the “Innovation in Government” award from the
National Council of State Governments.
Ms. Prezioso frequently
speaks on trial advocacy, trial preparation, discovery and investigations, and
has been featured in news specials on ABC, NBC, CBS and the Discovery Channel.