Lloyd B. Chinn

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Partner

New York +1.212.969.3341

Lloyd B. Chinn is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of the Whistleblowing & Retaliation Practice Group and of the Financial Services Practice Group. He litigates employment disputes of all types before federal and state courts, arbitration tribunals (e.g., FINRA, JAMS and AAA), and before administrative agencies in New York and across the country. Lloyd is a trial lawyer, having first-chaired 35+ trials or arbitrations to conclusion. His practice ranges from litigating compensation disputes to defending whistleblower, discrimination and sexual harassment claims and litigating non-compete and trade secret matters. Although he represents employers in a wide range of industries, including law, insurance, health care, consulting, media, music, education, and technology, he focuses a substantial portion of his practice on the financial services sector. Many of Lloyd's clients are international in scope, often based outside the U.S.

Due to Lloyd’s litigation experience, clients regularly turn to him for advice regarding the full range of employment matters, including terminations, whistleblower policy and procedure, restrictive covenants, reductions in force, employment agreements, and employment policies. Lloyd has also been retained to conduct internal investigations of allegations of workplace misconduct, including claims leveled against senior executives.

Lloyd has represented global businesses in matters involving Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank whistleblower claims. He has taken an active role in the American Bar Association on these issues, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Whistleblower subcommittee of the ABA Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Lloyd has spoken on whistleblowing topics before a numerous organizations, including the American Bar Association, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the International Bar Association, ALI-ABA, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York University School of Law. He has testified twice before Congressional subcommittees regarding whistleblower legislation and has also published blog postings, articles and client alerts on a variety of topics in this area, including the Dodd-Frank Act’s whistleblower provisions. Lloyd is a co-editor of Proskauer’s Whistleblower Defense Blog, and he has been widely quoted by on whistleblower topics by a number of publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the National Law Journal and Law 360.

Lloyd has also become active in the International Bar Association, presenting on a variety of subjects, including: the #MeToo movement, the COVID-19 pandemic and employment law, and cross-border harmonization of employment provisions in transactions. Lloyd also hosts a quarterly roundtable discussion among financial services industry in-house employment lawyers. He has also published articles and given speeches on a variety of other employment-law topics, including non-solicitation provisions, FINRA arbitration rules, cross-border discovery, e-discovery, and the use of experts.

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Matters

Representative Recent Litigations

Victory on behalf of global financial services firm in one of the first “me too” sexual harassment matters brought in the industry. After defeating the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction, successfully compelled the case to arbitration, after which, all of plaintiff’s claims were dismissed. In addition, obtained a six figure award of breach of contract damages and sanctions. The entire arbitration award was confirmed in federal court.
Multiple outright victories on behalf of a global investment bank in contentious arbitrations in which former senior trading and sales employees terminated in the wake of regulatory investigations sought the tens of millions of dollars in forfeited deferred compensation.
A major victory on behalf of a furniture manufacturer company against a former executive in an 11-day bench trial under the Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud Abuse Act, and also defeating all of his whistleblowing and contract claims. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling in favor of our client in all respects. The District Court ultimately entered judgments in our client’s favor amounting to over $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages, sanctions and attorney’s fees;
The dismissal of a former global financial services employee’s gender discrimination claims;
The dismissal of a former investment banker who sought over $20 million in bonus compensation, severance benefits and equity compensation in the company;
On behalf of a global financial services company, the dismissal of a former banker’s claims for more than $7,000,000 in bonus compensation, based on various quasi-contractual theories;
Numerous compensation disputes arising from the closing of a global bank’s internal hedge fund, including multiple favorable arbitral awards and court decisions (Federal and State, trial and appellate);
A dispute between an investment bank and a former senior banker arising out of the former banker’s solicitation of employees, resulting in an extremely favorable negotiated resolution following a 12-day arbitration and two successful ancillary state court actions;
The dismissal of a former floor specialist’s whistleblower and compensation claims, following a 30-day arbitration;
The dismissal of a former partner’s claims and the recovery of attorney’s fees, on behalf of a prominent boutique law firm, following a one-week arbitration;
A sex discrimination case in which the claimant (a former sell-side analyst at a global bank) sought millions in damages – post-deposition, she withdrew her claims and issued letters of apology to those she had accused; and
The dismissal of all claims (except for one month of notice pay) after a two-week arbitration of a former private banker’s age discrimination, retaliation and breach of contract claims.

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Proskauer Whistleblower Defense Blog

Highlights and updates in whistleblower defense claims

Edited by Lloyd B. Chinn and Steven J. Pearlman