Patricia M. Prezioso is Co-Chair of the Sills Cummis & Gross
Employment and Labor Practice Group. She focuses her practice in the areas of employment defense,
investigations and white collar criminal defense.
Ms. Prezioso partners with her clients to help them increase
efficiencies, and when a matter does arise, reduces business disruptions from
the matter at hand allowing management to focus on running the business.
As a seasoned litigator and trial attorney who conducts
trials to verdict, Ms. Prezioso is skilled in defending companies and management
in all types of employment claims. She provides comprehensive counsel to
companies looking to manage risk or facing claims, such as discrimination,
harassment, whistleblower, retaliation, equal pay, invasion of privacy,
defamation, FLSA claims and class actions, worker misclassification,
disciplinary actions and discharge, and employee leaves.
Ms. Prezioso has extensive experience in matters involving restrictive
covenants, 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 also assists businesses and entities with in-house
investigations, responding to government subpoenas and defense of criminal
allegations.
Ms. Prezioso’s experience in the public sector has provided
her with unique investigative and prosecutorial insight that she applies to counseling
and, when necessary, 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.