Lecturer Bios
Joseph H. Harris, Esq.
Joseph H. Harris has focused his career as an employment attorney on counseling and representing businesses. Before becoming a partner at White Harris, he managed his own employment law practice, which counseled small businesses on compliance with city, state, and federal employment laws. In that capacity, Mr. Harris advised companies in connection with employment policies and procedures, wage practices, termination, severance, employment agreements, and restrictive covenants.
Previously, Mr. Harris practiced employment litigation at Moses & Singer LLP, one of the top nationally ranked law firms in the United States. There, he worked directly with the Co-Head of the firm’s Litigation and Employment and Labor departments to assist in representing corporate clients in a variety of employment law matters including breach of contract, wrongful termination, and wage and hour disputes. These corporations ranged in size from regional businesses to international financial institutions.
A frequent speaker on employment law issues, Mr. Harris has presented lectures, continuing legal education courses, and workshops on a variety of employment law topics including wage and hour laws, independent contractors and worker misclassification, employment law compliance, and preventing discrimination and harassment lawsuits. He has also served as a guest lecturer for the Strategic Steps for Growth program at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
Mr. Harris is an alumnus of Oxford University and a graduate of Haverford College and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York and, in federal court, in the Southern and Eastern districts of New York. He is a member of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and the Labor and Employment Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association.
Evan J. White, Esq.
Evan J. White is a partner of the firm. His extensive labor and employment law background includes both private practice and government experience. In private practice, Mr. White served as a Labor and Employment Associate at a prominent New York City law firm. There he represented employers in a broad range of industries including healthcare, retail and the automotive. He also drafted collective bargaining agreements, employer policies, handbooks, severance agreements, employment contracts, and appeared in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies. After gaining experience as an associate, Mr. White opened his own labor and employment law firm, representing employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, including administrative complaints and litigation involving federal, state, and local laws, such as Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York Labor Law.
Mr. White’s government experience includes service as an Assistant General Counsel for the Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations, which is responsible for municipal labor relations for the City of New York, which employs over 300,000 people and 140 individual bargaining units. There he provided legal counsel and represented the City in collective bargaining negotiations. He also drafted collective bargaining agreements and advised City officials on various labor and employment issues, including drug and alcohol testing, discipline and discharge, reductions of force, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and salary disputes. His record as an Assistant General Counsel includes successfully representing various New York City agencies, such as the New York City Police Department and the Administration for Children’s Services, in labor relations matters before the New York City Office of Collective Bargaining, in arbitrations, improper practice hearings and petitions for injunctive relief. Mr. White has also served as a Review Officer for the New York City Office of Labor Relations. In that capacity, he heard labor grievances between the City of New York and its unions involving issues such as discipline and discharge of City employees and contractual disputes arising from collective bargaining agreements.
Mr. White is a member of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the New York State Bar Association, and the Labor and Employment Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association. He is admitted to practice in the state of New York and, in the federal courts, in the Southern and Eastern districts of New York. Mr. White is a graduate of Lafayette College and New York Law School.