Cozen O’Connor today announced Sandi F. Dubin, a veteran New York labor and employment attorney with more than 20 years’ experience helping major employers and higher education institutions manage and resolve their labor relations issues, has joined its nationally recognized Labor & Employment Department. Dubin, who comes to the firm from Ogletree Deakins, joins Cozen O’Connor as a member and will reside in its New York City office. She is the fifth attorney to take up residence in the New York office in 2024, joining business litigators Alexander I. Cohen and Michael A. Fernandez, real estate attorney Jennifer Nellany, and Cozen O’Conner Public Strategies’ Senior Principal Meenakshi Srinivasan.
In her new role, Dubin will focus primarily on traditional labor law, which includes advising and representing employers in collective bargaining matters, labor arbitrations, and unfair labor practice disputes before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Dubin also brings a lengthy track record of handling complex labor and employment matters involving higher education institutions. Earlier in her career, she served as New York University’s (NYU) associate general counsel and director of labor relations, leading the university’s negotiating team at the bargaining table and in the development of strategic proposals involving numerous collective bargaining units.
“There’s a substantial increase in union organizing activities currently taking place in higher education institutions and nonprofits across the country,” said Thomas S. Giotto, chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Labor & Employment Department. “In many instances, educational institutions are negotiating contracts with newly formed academic bargaining units for the first time. Sandi brings a wealth of experience in this area, which is new and often quite complex for our academic and nonprofit clients. She’s a terrific addition to the more than a dozen Cozen O’Connor Labor & Employment attorneys who currently represent higher education clients and I’m happy to welcome her to our practice.”
“Sandi also expands and deepens our traditional labor practice here in New York,” said Michael Schmidt, the vice chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment Department and managing partner of the New York office. “She’s represented employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, with a focus on matters involving the National Labor Relations Act. She’s an important addition to our practice and to our New York office. I’m very much looking forward to working with her.”
Dubin provides guidance on a range of labor-management relations issues, including hiring, discipline, and termination, grievances, and performance management; and defends employers in administrative charges and complaints before a range of administrative agencies. When litigation is unavoidable, she also defends employers in labor disputes involving discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and in wage and hour class actions.
An accomplished author and public speaker, Dubin presents regularly at legal conferences, addressing a range of still evolving labor and employment measures, including nondisclosure agreements, employment discrimination, and harassment.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Cozen O’Connor’s New York City Office,” Dubin said. “The firm is well-known and well-regarded for its national labor and employment practice and is at the forefront of the growing number of labor matters facing today’s higher education institutions, which is important to me. I’m very much looking forward to collaborating with my new colleagues across the firm.”
Dubin earned her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.