ELIZABETH WAGONER is an associate at Outten & Golden LLP and a member of the Class Action Practice Group, handling primarily misclassification, minimum wage, and overtime cases. She is currently litigating nationwide class actions on behalf of employees in a variety of industries, including unpaid interns at Fox Searchlight and The Hearst Corporation, audit and advisory staff at Big Four accounting firms, and employees at high-end New York City restaurants and nightclubs. As a member of the firm’s Public Interest Committee, she also advises and represents low-income day laborers on a pro bono basis, and is also litigating a sexual harassment lawsuit on behalf of a group of female laundry workers.
Prior to joining the firm in 2011, Ms. Wagoner was a Senior Staff Attorney for Employment and Immigration Initiatives with Make the Road New York, where she advised and represented individuals in labor, employment, and immigration matters. In 2009, Ms. Wagoner was co-lead counsel in a wage-and-hour trial in federal court, which resulted in a jury verdict for money damages for her client, plus an award of attorneys’ fees. In addition to her litigation docket, Ms. Wagoner also provided technical and legal support for Make the Road New York’s employment law policy initiatives.
Ms. Wagoner has collaborated with a number of organizations on employee-side advocacy and litigation projects, including the Urban Justice Center, MFY Legal Services, the National Employment Law Project, and the Legal Aid Society of New York. Ms. Wagoner is a member of New York’s Low Wage Worker Task Force, the Labor and Employment Committee of the National Lawyers’ Guild, and the National Employment Lawyers Association.
During law school, Ms. Wagoner clerked for Deats Durst Owen & Levy, P.L.L.C., an Austin, Texas labor and employment law firm. In 2007, she received the Texas Law Fellowships Excellence in Public Interest Award. She also served as a 2006 Peggy Browning Fellow with the Legal Department of UNITE HERE in New York and as President of the National Lawyers’ Guild Student Chapter in Austin. Ms. Wagoner received her B.S. in International Politics magna cum laude from Georgetown University and her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. She is fluent in Spanish and French, and is admitted to practice in New York State and in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.
Bar/Professional Activity
- National Employment Lawyers Association
- New York State Bar Association
- American Bar Association
Media Appearances
- “The Internship Rip-Off,” New York Times Magazine, March 9, 2012.
- 'Black Swan' Unpaid Interns File Lawsuit Against Fox Searchlight, ABC News, September 29, 2011.
- “Unpaid Interns Sue 'Black Swan' Production Company,” The Takeaway, September 30, 2011
- “Unpaid intern sues magazine for minimum wage, overtime,” Reuters, Jonathan Allen, February 1, 2012.
Publications
- Recent Cases On Ethical Issues Regarding Attorney’s Fees
Philip Durst, Elizabeth Wagoner & Michael Murphy, Austin Bar Association 2009 Advanced Texas Administrative Law Seminar
