EEOC v. Morgan Stanley
she/her
Nantiya Ruan
Senior Counsel
My Legal Practice
I represent employees in class actions, researching the viability of legal arguments, finding expert witnesses, and writing legal briefs and research memos to strengthen our cases.
My professional identity as an advocate, teacher and writer adds a critical, academic lens to the firm’s legal arguments.
In addition to my role at Outten & Golden, I’m a tenured professor at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, where I teach civil procedure and legal writing; and publish research on low-wage work, collective actions, poverty and homelessness, and social justice.
Among other topics, I’ve published on how various court rulings, including ones on private arbitration, prevent low-wage workers from bringing wage theft claims. This paper was cited several times by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissent in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, in which the Court held that arbitration agreements requiring individual arbitration and prohibiting class action lawsuits are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act.
My academic research has also delved into racial pay equity in white collar professions, the concept of “hours equity” and how it affects female workers, and the ramifications of the age of automation on vulnerable workers.
Notable Matters
- Part of an Outten & Golden team that secured $3.7 million for five female Syracuse University faculty members who alleged university-wide discriminatory pay and promotion practices.
- Part of an Outten & Golden team that secured a $15 million settlement for more than 450,000 workers in Gonzalez v. Pritzker, a groundbreaking case that challenged the U.S. Census Bureau’s background check policy.
- Part of an Outten & Golden team that secured $215 million a settlement for 2,800 women at Goldman Sachs who claimed the company’s pay, evaluation, and promotion policies were biased toward men.
Credentials
- B.A., Villanova University
- MSW, University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work
- J.D., University of Denver Sturm College of Law
- Admitted to practice law in New York and California
- Co-Author of Developing Professional Skills: Workplace Law, West Academic Publishing (2016)
- Co-Author of The New 1L: First-Year Lawyering with Clients, Carolina Academic Press (2015)
- Co-Author of Fair Labor Standards Act (Bloomberg 4th ed., 2023 annual update)
- Recipient, Association of Legal Writing Directors’ Diversity Award
- Recipient, Legal Writing Institute’s Terri LeClercq Courage Award
My Story
After college, I was an addiction counselor and case manager for homeless and pregnant teens. The experience kindled my interest in public interest law, where I could help people, particularly poor women marginalized in our society. I was honored to be chosen for a full-tuition Chancellor’s Scholarship that let me earn both a J.D. and a master’s degree in social work. I then clerked for a federal judge with a civil rights background, in the Southern District of New York, as I weighed my next move.
Then, out of the blue, a letter arrived in 1999 from a newly formed law firm called Outten & Golden.
It posed a simple question: Did I want to spend the next few years at a large law firm, living in a library, researching ways to help corporations boost profits, or would I rather represent real people and make a difference in their lives?
Naturally, I applied immediately. I was one of the firm’s first hires and it’s been an amazing, rewarding ride for 25 years.
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