Lawyer Profile
Wayne Norris Outten
Attorney Bio
WAYNE N. OUTTEN is the founding and managing partner of Outten & Golden LLP. His practice focuses exclusively on representing individuals in all areas of employment law. He co-chairs the firm’s Executives and Professionals Practice Group.
Mr. Outten has lectured extensively on employment law, especially on negotiation, mediation, and arbitration of employment disputes, on employment and severance agreements, and on retaliation and whistleblower claims. He is a widely published author whose work is frequently found in legal and popular publications.
Mr. Outten was selected by his peers as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for at least 20 years and as one of New York’s Super Lawyers for many years - where he is listed as one of the Top 100 lawyers in New York. He was selected for the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America in 2006 and for the Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Lawyers in America in 2007. Best Lawyers designated him "Lawyer of the Year 2010" for Labor and Employment Law - New York.
Mr. Outten is a founding member of the Executive Board of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) and served on its Board for more than 11 years; he is co-chair of its International Law Committee. He founded the New York affiliate of NELA and was its president for more than 15 years. He is a co-founder and officer of Workplace Fairness, a charitable/educational organization.
He was a founding Governor of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers (1996-2003). Mr. Outten served on the Council of the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association (2000-2008), is co-chair of the Section’s Membership Development Committee, was Liaison for the Section's Committees on Employment Rights and Responsibilities and Pro Bono Work, and was the employee co-chair of the both the International Labor & Employment Law Committee and the Employment Rights and Responsibilities Committee.
He is an active member of the New York State Bar Association's Labor & Employment Law Section, is on its Executive Committee, and was co-chair of its International Labor & Employment Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution Committees. He is a member of the Employment Disputes Committee of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution. For almost 20 years, he was a member of the Board of the New York Civil Liberties Union (and its Nassau chapter), and he was a member of its Executive Committee.
Mr. Outten’s notable cases include a recovery of $12 million in a gender discrimination/retaliation case against Morgan Stanley in federal court and (with partner Larry Moy) a $18.9 million arbitration award in a breach of contract case against Deutsche Bank - one of the largest arbitration awards in an employment case.*
Mr. Outten received his B.S. from Drexel University in 1970 and his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1974, where he was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1979. He was a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Gus J. Solomon, District of Oregon (1974-76) and was an instructor at the NYU School of Law (1976-1978). He was an associate and then a partner at Lankenau Kovner & Outten, LLP (1979-1998).
He is a member of the bars of New York, the United States Supreme Court, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.