Zoe Salzman is an experienced trial attorney. She has tried commercial and civil rights cases before juries in both federal and state courts. She has also argued appeals in both the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the First Department Appellate Division.
Ms. Salzman’s diverse practice at the firm includes representing people, companies, and not-for-profit organizations in challenges in many fields, including employment discrimination; sexual harassment; sexual assault; Child Victims Act abuse; Adult Survivors Act abuse; wrongful conviction; police and prison abuse; tort and contract disputes; partnership disputes; housing discrimination; constitutional litigation; developmental disability discrimination; and school bullying.
She also represents lawyers, executives in all fields, employees, and companies in internal investigations and the negotiation of employment, severance, and separation agreements.
Ms. Salzman specializes in representing victims in #MeToo cases with claims for sexual harassment, assault, or abuse. In 2022, Ms. Salzman won a $10 million jury verdict in a rape case against a movie director. In 2021, Ms. Salzman represented one of the women interviewed in the Attorney General’s investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against Governor Andrew Cuomo. In 2019, Ms. Salzman argued and won a landmark victory in the First Department Appellate Division that rape and sexual assault are necessarily motivated at least in part by animus towards the victim’s gender, and therefore prohibited by the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. Many of Ms. Salzman’s other cases in this field have been resolved in high-value confidential settlements or litigated in confidential arbitrations.
Ms. Salzman regularly teaches and speaks on panels hosted by the Practicing Law Institute (PLI), the National Employment Lawyers Association/New York, New York University School of Law, and other institutions and law schools.
Prior to joining the firm in 2010, Ms. Salzman clerked for the Hon. Sterling Johnson, Jr. in the Eastern District of New York and worked with the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law. Ms. Salzman graduated magna cum laude from NYU School of Law in 2007.
Education
New York University, LL.M., 2008
IILJ Fellow, Jerome Lipper Prize
New York University, J.D., magna cum laude, 2007
Order of the Coif
Concordia University, B.A., with great distinction, 2003
Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
Memberships
Member, Board of Advisers, NYU School of Law
Robert and Helen Bernstein Institute for Human Rights
Member & Past Vice President of the Board of the National Employment Lawyers Association, New York
Member, Advisory Board, New York University Center for Labor and Employment Law
Member, Federal Bar Council Civil Rights Committee
Honors
Super Lawyer (2022-2023)
Super Lawyers Rising Star award (2018-2021)
City and State’s 40 Under 40 Rising Star award
Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyers” (2022-2023)
Attorney News
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Court Preliminarily Approves Aetna Settlement Guaranteeing Equitable Fertility Coverage for LGBTQ+ Families
October 9, 2024
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ECBAWM Partner Zoe Salzman Recognized as one of Concordia University’s “50 Great Concordians”
October 3, 2024
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13 ECBAWM Partners named to 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers
August 1, 2024
Representative Cases
Won a $10 million jury verdict (consisting of a $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages) in the MeToo rape case of Breest v. Haggis. Read more about the case here.
Argued and won a landmark victory on the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law in Breest v. Haggis.
Obtained a settlement of $8.25 million in Scott v. Pritchett, et al., a wrongful conviction case alleging Detroit Police Department officers coerced and falsified witness statements and suppressed evidence, resulting in the plaintiff being wrongfully incarcerated for nearly twenty years for a murder he did not commit. Read more about the case here.
Represented one of the women interviewed in the Attorney General’s investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Publications
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Zoe Salzman & Billy Joe Mills, Opinion: Tamir Rice Deserves Justice. The Biden Administration Could Finally Deliver It (Washington Post, Jan. 21, 2021), available here.
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Zoe Salzman, Alanna Kaufman, Elizabeth Saylor, Opinion: Another Venue for Sexual Harassment Claims (New York Times, Oct. 31, 2017), available here.
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Report, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Rights Within Reach: Securing Human Rights and Equality in Nepal’s New Constitution (New York: NYU School of Law, 2010).
Education
New York University, LL.M., 2008
IILJ Fellow, Jerome Lipper Prize
New York University, J.D., magna cum laude, 2007
Order of the Coif
Concordia University, B.A., with great distinction, 2003
Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
Memberships
Member, Board of Advisers, NYU School of Law
Robert and Helen Bernstein Institute for Human Rights
Member & Past Vice President of the Board of the National Employment Lawyers Association, New York
Member, Advisory Board, New York University Center for Labor and Employment Law
Member, Federal Bar Council Civil Rights Committee
Honors
Super Lawyer (2022-2023)
Super Lawyers Rising Star award (2018-2021)
City and State’s 40 Under 40 Rising Star award
Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyers” (2022-2023)