Litigation Department of the Year, Labor and Employment Winner: Sills Cummis & Gross

Sills Cummis & Gross received the New Jersey Law Journal’s Litigation Department of the Year, Labor and Employment Award at the 2026 New Jersey Legal Awards held on October 29, 2026 in Somerset, New Jersey. This is the third time since 2022 that Sills Cummis has received this honor, and one of four awards the Firm and its attorneys received at the Legal Awards banquet.

In connection with the award, the New Jersey Law Journal published a Q&A with Patricia Prezioso, Chair of the Sills Cummis Employment and Labor Practice Group. In it, she discusses the Department’s most satisfying successes of 2025 and the practice’s growth in trade secret and unfair competition work, along with an increase in wage and hour and misclassification matters. She also shares what success requires in a changing legal market, including the safe and effective use of AI, and addresses the Firm’s commitment to delivering exceptional service and value to its clients. Her responses, published in the New Jersey Law Journal on October 30, 2026, appear below.

What are some of the department’s most satisfying successes of 2025, and why?

Our most satisfying wins come from being part of our clients’ teams, understanding how the issues at hand fit into their overall goals, and then helping them achieve those goals.

The breadth of our work speaks volumes about the successes we enjoyed with our clients in 2025. Those successes ranged from winning motions to dismiss, which either secured complete relief for our clients or vastly narrowed damages and thereby facilitated settlement; to successfully negotiating around restrictive covenants so that legitimate business concerns were addressed while employees could work for competitors with reasonable guardrails protecting trade secrets and confidential information; to working diligently with the DOL to provide the information it needed to close client audit investigations.

Management-side employment representation is not just discrimination and harassment. The adjacent counseling to navigate wage and hour issues, identify misclassification, and build in trade secret protection programs and reasonable, consistent and narrowly tailored restrictive covenants is equally important to litigation success, because it lowers client risk and serves to strengthen our clients’ growth moving forward.

What have been some of your department’s long-term adaptations in recent years?

Without question, our biggest adaptation has been the growth of our trade secret and unfair competition work, often arising from claims that employees exfiltrated confidential data and trade secrets, along with an increase in wage and hour and misclassification matters. While we still handle a good deal of discrimination, harassment and retaliation work, the growing prevalence of employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) has changed that landscape. Our clients need and want expertise in the aforementioned other areas. Meeting that demand has meant growing our team and seeking specific skills and experience when we hire.

The market for legal services has been changing since well before 2025. What does success require in this climate?

Success requires that we demonstrate value at every step. Understanding and integrating AI safely, and always verifying resulting information, is not optional. Clients expect us to use AI tools effectively to bring efficiencies, especially in document-heavy matters. But AI is a tool, not a substitute for the experience and judgment our clients rely on us to provide.

Moreover, evolving and new laws require staying on top of not only new decisions but also significant changes seemingly across the employment spectrum, such as in leave requirements, mandated recordkeeping and reporting, accommodation requirements and more, all of which impact day-to-day employee management and risk.

Employment departments need not only to address their clients’ current legal needs but also to effectively integrate a rapid influx of new information and turn it around quickly to clients. And, with so many clients doing business in multiple states, understanding not only the clients’ relevant information concerning the current issue, but also the scope of our clients’ businesses and employee infrastructure, is essential to effective legal counseling and ensures that our legal guidance and litigation strategies move each client in the direction most beneficial to them.

How has the firm handled pressure from clients, such as with rates, and from the hiring market, with competition for talent?

While no client is ever excited about a rate hike, we strive to demonstrate our value and our commitment to our clients every day. It seems that most of our clients recognize that available hours are not infinite, and in 2026 they know that not all employment lawyers are equal.

Further, with experience and solid management, we focus on efficiencies. There can always be a less expensive attorney by hourly rate; however, if risk, business distraction, brand reputation and stability are important, then having a trusted legal advisor is essential. Our firm is also a business, and those who run businesses—including our clients—understand inflation, competition for talent, and the necessity of proper rates.

Good lawyers work hard, and if not compensated properly, they will leave. Here again, our clients deal with that same undeniable truth with their employees. Our clients expect high standards from our services—which is exactly what we want them to expect—and we steadfastly look to deliver exceptional services every day.

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