Julian R. Birnbaum Biography

Julian R. Birnbaum has been an employment, civil rights and public interest lawyer for more than 36 years.  Prior to becoming of counsel to the firm, he was a Deputy Commissioner at the New York State Division of Human Rights, where he investigated and brought Division-initiated charges of systemic discrimination and was responsible for prosecutions of individual discrimination complaints at public hearings.  He previously served as an Assistant Attorney General and Section Chief for employment matters in the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office.  Before government service, Mr. Birnbaum practiced employment law in New York City for twenty years, litigating and arbitrating discrimination, harassment, contract, benefits, fraud and whistleblower cases in individual employee and class action cases.

Mr. Birnbaum graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1975 and Harvard College in 1970.  He began practice in a neighborhood legal aid office in Chicago, representing poor persons in employment, housing and consumer matters; was the civil rights attorney for a state-wide legal services program in West Virginia; and tried criminal cases as a public defender in Brooklyn before private practice.  Mr. Birnbaum is a mediator for the Southern District of New York federal court mediation program, specializing in employment discrimination cases, and speaks at continuing legal education conferences.