Patricia M. Prezioso

Patricia M. Prezioso is Chair of the Sills Cummis & Gross Employment and Labor Practice Group. She is an active litigator and counselor, with her practice focusing on assisting businesses with issues relating to their employees, including defending claims and lawsuits brought by employees against their employers, sexual harassment and discrimination, whistleblower, New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”), defending or enforcing restrictive covenants, and claims arising from the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and Equal Pay Act. Ms. Prezioso investigates and litigates claims concerning unfair competition and the misappropriation of confidential information. Ms. Prezioso also offers counseling on employee claims, strategies for mitigating risk, as well as assistance with employee hiring and separating, employee discipline, leave requests, worker classification, protecting confidential information, wage and hour issues, and handbook, policy, and agreement development, implementation, and enforcement.

Ms. Prezioso understands that businesses need not only excellent work product, but attention to both billing efficiency and minimizing business disruption. With litigation matters, this means strategizing to position the company for the best achievable result while considering both cost and business impact. For those matters where a trial is necessary, Ms. Prezioso uses her broad and notable trial experience to make sure her client’s voice is clearly heard in the courtroom.

Ms. Prezioso also assists businesses and entities with in-house investigations, responding to government subpoenas and defense of criminal allegations. Ms. Prezioso has extensive experience in matters involving government or administrative agency investigations, including before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the New York State Division of Human Rights and the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, and defending businesses and entities from liability claims relating to alleged intentional acts of its employees or agents.

Ms. Prezioso’s experience in the public sector has provided her with unique investigative and prosecutorial insight that she applies to defending her clients. Before entering private practice, she worked for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office – Division of Criminal Justice, serving as Chief of Law Enforcement Services, Deputy Director and Executive Assistant Attorney General. She was the lead prosecutor in State v. McGuire, one of New Jersey’s most infamous murder trials. Ms. Prezioso also served as an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where she was both a designated homicide assistant and a member of the Sex Crimes Unit. She was honored by the State of New Jersey and the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety with “Professional Achievement” awards and received the “Innovation in Government” award from the National Council of State Governments.

Ms. Prezioso frequently speaks on trial advocacy, trial preparation, discovery and investigations, and has been featured in news specials on ABC, NBC, CBS and the Discovery Channel.