Rick Ostrove

Rick Ostrove is principal trial counsel for Leeds Brown Law. Rick has won numerous jury verdicts including a $15M verdict in a sexual harassment case, one of the largest jury awards to an individual plaintiff in an employment discrimination case. He also obtained a $5.25M award in a workplace retaliation case and has multiple other victories with awards exceeding $1M, including a 2019, FINRA arbitration award in a sexual harassment case. On three occasions, Rick has appeared in Verdict Search’s publication Top New York Verdicts.

After winning a First Amendment, Judge Joseph F. Bianco, now a United States Circuit Court of Appeals Judge for the 2d Circuit, issued a decision describing Rick as “an experienced lawyer, with almost two decades of experience in employment litigation and extensive trial experience." Judge Bianco awarded Rick’s client attorneys’ fees “at the high end of the range” based upon the Judge’s “own observations of Ostrove’s abilities [and] performance.” The Judge cited a case stating that such rates “are reserved for expert trial attorneys with extensive experience before the federal bar, who specialize in the practice of civil rights law and are recognized by their peers as leaders and experts in their fields.”

United States District Judge Arthur D. Spatt commented: “Mr. Ostrove is one of the premiere trial lawyers in the field [of employment law] and has tried many cases before me. Mr. Ostrove is outstanding.” United States District Judge Joanna Seybert described Rick as having a “marvelous way with juries” and achieving “fantastic results.”

Although his primary practice areas are employment and civil rights law, Rick has extensive experience handling complex litigation, including commercial, estate, and matrimonial matters. As lead trial counsel in a federal Unfair Competition case, he managed more than a dozen lawyers from four separate law firms. The action involved over fifty deposed witnesses and approximately twenty expert reports. After closing arguments, United States District Judge Leonard D. Wexler described the trial performance as “fantastic,” “superb,” and “excellent.” Judge Wexler added in his published post-trial decision, “[t]his case was highly contested and well tried by all counsel. Indeed, the court is hard pressed to recall a trial in which the claims of the parties was so competently and clearly presented by counsel to a jury.”

Rick was lead trial counsel in Quinn v. Nassau County, the first case where a court held that workplace harassment of a municipal employee based on sexual orientation violates the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In a separate case, Manning v. Nassau County, he used this theory to obtain a $1.5M emotional damage verdict.

Rick is currently an adjunct professor at Hofstra Law School and he frequently appears as a speaker regarding civil rights issues. One of his trial victories was featured on ABC’s 20/20. He has lectured about employment law and trial advocacy over 50 times, including at continuing legal education classes hosted by the New York City, Nassau County, and the Suffolk County Bar Associations.

Rick is the former Chairperson of the Nassau County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Committee. Rick was recognized by that committee for having “the highest level of character, integrity, professional expertise and leadership in the field of labor and employment law.”  For each of the past ten years, Rick has been selected as a New York Super Lawyer.  He is admitted to practice in all State and Federal Courts in New York as well as the United States Supreme Court, and he has successfully argued numerous appeals to the Second Circuit and the New York State Appellate Division.

Rick graduated seventh in his class from Hofstra University School of Law, where he was a member of the Hofstra Law Review. Rick holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University at Albany, where he graduated cum laude.