Joshua R. Goodbaum

A graduate of Harvard and Yale, and a four-time Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” for employment law and litigation, Josh Goodbaum represents Connecticut employees and other civil rights plaintiffs in litigation and negotiation.

Josh’s experience as a Connecticut employment lawyer who represents employees runs the gamut, from discrimination (on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, pregnancy, or national origin) and sexual harassment, to wrongful termination, retaliation, non-competition agreements and other restrictive covenants, contract disputes, and wage and hour issues, including claims for unpaid overtime and commissions. He has secured several seven-figure settlements in sexual harassment cases.  He has counseled employees and executives in the negotiation of separation agreements of all sizes – from less than $25,000 to more than $25 million.  He has represented employees in virtually every sector of the Connecticut economy: accounting, banking, construction, entertainment, finance, government, healthcare, higher education, hospitality, insurance, law, manufacturing, and technology.  And he has partnered in litigation with leading civil rights organizations, including the AARP Foundation, GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), and the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund.

Josh’s representation of employees has earned him preeminent status in the Connecticut legal community.  Josh has been named the “Lawyer of the Year” for both “Employment Law – Individuals” (twice) and “Litigation – Labor & Employment” (twice) by The Best Lawyers in America, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. He has been recognized by Connecticut SuperLawyers since 2015, when the Connecticut Law Tribune also dubbed him a “New Leader of the Law.” Martindale-Hubbell ranks him at its highest level of professional excellence – AV Preeminent – based on ratings from his fellow lawyers and judges. And since 2019, Lawdragon has included him in its annual list of the Nation’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers.  (None of these recognitions can be purchased.)

Josh’s New Haven-area peers twice elected him to serve in the Connecticut Bar Association House of Delegates, the Bar Association’s governing body. Josh is the Co-Chair of the Bar Association’s Federal Practice Section, which includes many of Connecticut’s most prominent litigators.  He previously served as Chair of the Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Section, as well as on the Bar Association’s Awards Committee and Nominations Committee, and he was an invited member of the Editorial Board of the Connecticut Law Tribune and the Advisory Board of the New York University Center for Labor and Employment Law.  He is a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation.  And he is an elected member of the Board of Governors and Chair of the Employment Law Committee of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA), which seeks to preserve individual rights within the justice system and protect the rights of plaintiffs – including employees – who are injured through no fault of their own.

Josh teaches Trial Practice at Yale Law School.

Josh earned his law degree from Harvard Law School magna cum laude, reflecting a grade point average in the top ten percent of his graduating class. While at Harvard, Josh served as a Supervising Editor of the Harvard Law Review and Co-Chair of the Public Interest Auction. After law school, he clerked for Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the Supreme Court of the United States when Justice Gorsuch was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Josh went to college at Yale University, graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a degree in history. Between college and law school, he worked for an industrial supply distribution company in Chicago.

Josh is a native of the New Haven area and serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association. In his spare time, he enjoys choral singing, playing tennis, and spending time with his husband, Andrew, and their rescue dog, Mungo.