Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer P.A.

Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer has years of experience handling a wide variety of class action matters focused on consumer fraud, employment discrimination, wage & hour litigation, securities fraud, anti-trust, health care, insurance bad faith and corporate misconduct. The attorneys at Wilentz have prosecuted a number of cases nationwide and have obtained millions of dollars for members of the classes they have represented.

Class actions serve an important function in our system of civil justice. Class actions are typically considered the superior method of litigating cases where a large number of individuals have been injured for a relatively small amount of money in comparison to what it would cost the individual to litigate the case on their own.

Class actions are filed by "named representatives" who are individuals, unions or small businesses, who have the same problem or have been injured in the same manner as the rest of the proposed class. These named representatives "represent" the rights of all the individuals in the class, thereby allowing an entire group of people to recover through their efforts.

As soon as practicable after the filing of a class action the named representatives must ask the court to certify the action as a class action. If the court does "certify" the action as a class the parties work to create and provide a notice to class members, advising them of their rights and that they may be bound by the results of the lawsuit.

Once a class action is resolved in favor of plaintiffs and members of the class or settled, notice is once again sent to class members to advise them of steps to be taken, if any, in order to receive any compensation they may be entitled to gain as a result of the suit.

Wilentz has represented classes comprised of consumers, investors, unions, employees and other individuals and entities against a number of large commercial defendants. We have been involved in and successfully litigated class actions in both federal and state courts nationwide.

Wilentz currently handles the following types of class action cases:

• Consumer Protection
• Wage & Hour Litigation
• Shareholder Actions
• False Claims Act / Qui Tam
• RICO
• Antitrust Litigation

• Recruiting, retaining and developing diverse talent at all levels in the firm.
• Educating our employees and firm management regarding diversity issues.
• Participating in opportunities outside the firm to explore diversity initiatives by supporting programs that increase the understanding and appreciation of cultural differences.
• Recognizing diversity as a business imperative toward increasing our client base.
• Emphasizing the firm’s long-standing policy that encourages reporting of any discrimination or harassment based on sex, race, or any other protected status.

• In 1990, our Hiring Partner (now our Administrative Director), Stephen E. Barcan, was a founding member of the New Jersey Law Firm Group, an organization committed to the recruitment, hiring and retention of minority law students and lawyers in member firms and government agencies. The firm has remained an active participant and through this organization we sponsor a fellowship for a minority law student, provide roundtable discussion groups for law students, participate in minority job fairs, and encourage our associates to mentor students identified through this group.
• We support the Rutgers-Newark Law School Minority Student Program. In addition, we have provided first year minority students with the opportunity to participate in our summer associate program with a view toward mentoring each student toward eventual hire by the firm as an associate. We are pleased that our efforts in this regard have been successful, as our 2005 MSP intern joined the firm as an associate in the fall of 2007, our 2006 MSP intern joined us as an associate in the fall of 2008, and our 2007 MSP intern joined us as an associate in the fall of 2009.
• We encourage and sponsor our attorneys to become members of the Hispanic Bar Association. As a participant in the Hispanic Bar Association Mentorship Program, we assign Wilentz attorneys to be mentors for Hispanic law students as they complete their courses and work toward graduation from law school.
• Wilentz is a supporter of the Garden State Bar Association in their mission to assist African-Americans and other minorities in becoming an effective part of the judicial system.