Wayne N. Outten

WAYNE N. OUTTEN is Chair and Founding Partner of Outten & Golden LLP. He was the Managing Partner from the founding of the firm in 1998 until the end of 2018. His practice focuses exclusively on representing individuals in employment and partnership law. He co-chairs the firm’s Executives and Professionals Practice Groups.

Mr. Outten’s practice during the last twenty years on representing high-level employees and professionals in all aspects of their employment, including negotiation of employment, compensation, and severance agreements. That practice includes representing employees in multinational employment contexts, including expatriate and seconded employees. He is the author of the book The Rights of Employees (1984 and 1994) and of the “Representing the Executive” chapter in Executive Compensation (Bloomberg), in addition to many dozens of articles, papers, columns, and other book chapters.

Mr. Outten’s notable cases include: a recovery of more than $12 million in a gender discrimination/retaliation case against Morgan Stanley in federal court; an $18.9 million arbitration award in a breach of contract case against Deutsche Bank (with partner Larry Moy); and a $71.5 million arbitration award under a profit participation plan against another international bank – perhaps the largest arbitration award in an employment case (with partners Larry Moy and Tammy Marzigliano).*

Mr. Outten has received many awards and honors during his career, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023 from the New York State Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Section.  He has been selected by his peers as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” every year since 1987 and as one of New York’s Super Lawyers, where he is listed as one of the Top 100 New York Metro Super Lawyers every year since 2006. Best Lawyers designated him "Lawyer of the Year 2010" for Labor and Employment Law - New York City and "Lawyer of the Year 2012" for Litigation - Labor and Employment in New York City. He was selected for the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America every year since 2005, the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America in 2006, the Lawdragon 500 Plaintiff Employment Lawyers in 2018, and the Lawdragon 500 Hall of Fame in 2020.  He has been an AV Preeminent Rated Lawyer in the LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Top Rated Lawyers since 1992.

Mr. Outten has held leadership positions in numerous employment-related bar associations during the past 40+ years, including the following: the National Employment Lawyers Association (founding director in 1985 and board member for 11 years); the National Employment Lawyers Association of New York (founder in 1986 and president for 15 years); the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor & Employment Law (Chair of the Section, Council Member for many years, chair/co-chair of many administrative and standing committees, and member since 1983); the New York State Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Section (executive committee member for more than 20 years and member since 1982); and the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers (founding director in 1995 and board member for four years).

In addition, Mr. Outten was a co-founder in 1993 of Workplace Fairness, a charitable/educational organization, and is its current president: www.workplacefairness.org; and he was a co-founder and remains co-chair of the Lawyers International Network for Employees and Executives (LINEE): www.lineenetwork.org.  

Mr. Outten was a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Gus J. Solomon, District of Oregon (1974-76), and was an instructor at the NYU School of Law (1976-1978). He was an associate and then a partner at Lankenau Kovner & Outten, LLP (1979-1998).  He received his B.S. from Drexel University in 1970 and his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1974, where he was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow.

(*Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.)