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Michael Ranis, Esq.

Of Counsel

An Impressive Career Handling High-profile Cases

Michael Ranis specializes in labor and employment discrimination law and has been litigating those areas for more than twenty-five years. For over twenty-one years, he was a Trial Attorney for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at its New York City office. In that role, he developed and prosecuted employment discrimination cases by the EEOC against private employers involving race, age, sex, religion, national origin, and disability discrimination. He also served as trial counsel or was part of a team of attorneys in class actions against large private employers.

Highly Competent in Employment Discrimination Issues

Mr. Ranis also worked for more than five years in the early 1990s as an Associate with the New York City employment law discrimination firm of Vladek, Raskin & Clark P.C., exclusively representing plaintiffs in discrimination, defamation, contract, severance, ERISA, and labor law actions and disputes. This included the nationally famous trial in Ezold v. Wolf Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen, the first law partner promotion case brought to trial in the United States on behalf of a female associate alleging sex discrimination, Strauss v. Microsoft, Inc. (Sex), and Zeevi v. UBS (libel). Before his Vladeck work, he was previously employed in the Labor Department of the New York law firm of Kelly Drye & Warren.

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Education

Mr. Ranis is a graduate of Harvard Law School: J.D., 1988, cum laude; and Yale College, B.A. 1982, magna cum laude, Major in History, Minor in Economics.

Sample cases include:

EEOC v. Bloomberg, LLC
(pregnancy class);

EEOC v. Fox News Network
(sex harassment group);

EE- OC v. Morgan Stanley
(sex class);

EEOC v. Footlocker d/b/a/Woolworth
(age class);

EEOC v. Texas Roadhouse
(age class);

EEOC v. Grand Central Partnership
(religion & retaliation);

EEOC v. Marjam Supply Co.
(race);

EEOC v. J.B. Hunt Co.
(disability class);

EEOC v. FAPS, Inc.
(race class);

EEOC v. LaBranche Co.
(Disability);

EEOC v. Day & Zimmerman
(race);

EEOC v. Benihana, Inc.
(sex harassment);

EEOC v. C&S Wholesalers, Inc.
(age class);

EEOC v. UPS
(ind’l religion);

EEOC v. MOMA
(ind’l disability)

In addition to employment discrimination matters against private employers, Michael concentrates on employment actions on behalf of federal sector employees, disability insurance litigation, Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), ERISA, defamation, and personal injury.