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Practices

Biography

Kristin serves as Vice Practice Group Leader of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. She represents employers in high-stakes employment litigation, with a focus on discrimination, harassment, whistleblower, and wage and hour matters, including class and collective actions. A past President of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), she is recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers®, and New Jersey Super Lawyers (including Top 100 Attorneys and Top 50 Female Attorneys in New Jersey).

Kristin regularly defends companies and their senior executives in employment disputes in state and federal courts, as well as before administrative agencies. She has defended employers against complex, high-exposure claims across a range of industries, including technology, higher education, pharmaceuticals, financial services, healthcare, and public and nonprofit entities. Her experience also encompasses mediation, arbitration, and government investigations and audits, including matters involving the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, and the New York State Division of Human Rights.

She also provides strategic employment counseling to in-house counsel, human resources professionals, and executives, advising on a wide range of employment issues including:

  • Hiring practices, performance management, and terminations
  • Employment agreements
  • Employee handbooks and policies
  • Employee leaves and accommodations
  • Compensation issues
  • Wage and hour and worker classification issues
  • Workforce restructuring and reductions in force
  • Restrictive covenants
  • Employment issues arising from corporate transactions

Kristin also conducts internal investigations of alleged employee misconduct. She has handled numerous investigations, both privileged and non-privileged, of allegations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and violations of employer codes of conduct.

Kristin approaches each matter with a clear understanding that her clients’ objectives, risk tolerances, and industries differ. She stays current on sector-specific developments and aligns her strategy with her clients’ business priorities and operational realities.

A longtime champion for women’s advancement in the legal profession, Kristin served as President of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) from 2019-2020 and on NAWL’s board for a decade. Founded in 1899, NAWL is the nation’s oldest professional organization devoted to the interests and progress of women lawyers and women’s legal rights. During her term as President, NAWL undertook a multi-year, strategic planning process, reinvigorated the association’s focus on advocacy and public policy issues, and revitalized the Women Lawyers Journal, in publication since 1911. Kristin is also a longtime Trustee of the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association.

Other Info About Kristin

Experience

Legal Work Highlights

  • Represents a managed IT services company in wage and hour collective/class action alleging worker misclassification.
  • Represents a leading business products company in a class action alleging failure to provide ERISA severance benefits.
  • Represented a global fintech company in multiple single-plaintiff cases alleging discrimination and harassment claims and in an Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs compliance evaluation, which was closed with no findings of violation.
  • Obtained summary judgment for a major financial services company in a disability discrimination case brought by an independent contractor broker who alleged employee status.
  • Represented a leading business solutions company in whistleblower litigation alleging violations of the Conscientious Employee Protection Act and common law wrongful discharge in violation of public policy.
  • Defended a major construction contractor in multiple single-plaintiff cases alleging disability, race, and age discrimination.
  • Defended a major pharmaceutical company in a lawsuit alleging discrimination and whistleblower claims.
  • Defended a leading technology and consumer electronics company in multiple single-plaintiff cases alleging whistleblower, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and contract claims.
  • Represented a major technology company in a wage and hour investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor involving worker classification issues.
  • Represented a leading business solutions company and its CEO in an arbitration filed by a former executive involving claims of discrimination and defamation and counterclaims stemming from false expense reporting.
  • Defended a private university in a multi-plaintiff pay discrimination case brought by female tenured faculty members alleging age and gender discrimination.
  • Defended the state of New Jersey and senior officials in a multi-plaintiff discrimination and whistleblower lawsuit arising out of a reduction in force of government attorneys. Summary judgment was awarded on all counts, and the rulings were affirmed on appeal by the New Jersey Appellate Division.
  • Represented a regional tertiary care hospital and senior executives in whistleblower litigation filed by a physician department chair alleging termination based on patient care complaints.
  • Represented a leading healthcare network in litigation alleging discrimination, harassment, and whistleblower claims.
  • Represented a global biotechnology company in whistleblower matters filed by former sales representatives alleging retaliation for complaints about marketing practices.

Education

Law School

Harvard Law School, J.D.

  • Executive Board, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review

Undergraduate School

Swarthmore College, B.A., with high honors

  • Phi Beta Kappa

Bar Memberships

Kristin is licensed to practice in the following state(s):

State of New Jersey

State of New York

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

Courts

Kristin is admitted to practice before the following court(s):

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Recognition

Local & National Recognition

Award Selection Methodology

Recognized by Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Labor & Employment

Included in The Best Lawyers in America®, Litigation – Labor and Employment

Included in New Jersey Super Lawyers, Employment Litigation: Defense, Employment & Labor, 2017-2026; Top 100 Attorneys in New Jersey, 2022-2024; Top 50 Female Attorneys in New Jersey, 2021-2024, 2026

Selected for inclusion in ROI-NJ “Influencers: Women in Business,” 2023-2026

Fellow, American Bar Foundation

Selected for inclusion in NJBIZ “Leaders in Law,” 2024

Selected for inclusion in New Jersey Law Journal “Diverse Attorney of the Year,” 2023

Selected for inclusion in NJBIZ “Best 50 Women in Business,” 2019

Selected for inclusion in Profiles in Diversity Journal “Women Worth Watching,” 2019

Selected for inclusion in NJBIZ “Forty Under 40,” 2014

Recipient, National Association of Women Lawyers’ Virginia S. Mueller Outstanding Member Award, 2010

Professional Affiliations

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

National Association of Women Lawyers

  • Liaison, ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, 2021-present
  • Immediate Past President, 2020-2021
  • President, 2019-2020
  • Executive Committee, 2014-2021
  • Board Member at Large, 2011-2014

New Jersey Women Lawyers Association

  • Trustee at Large, 2012-2018; 2020-2022; 2026-present
  • Co-Director of Endorsements, 2022-2026
  • Co-Director of Membership, 2010-2012
  • Co-Director of Best Practices, 2008-2010; 2018-2020

New Jersey State Bar Association

  • Higher Education Committee
  • Diversity Committee

National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA)

Harvard Law School Association

  • Plenary Speaker, “Harvard Law School Through the Decades,” Celebration 70+, 2024
  • Programming Committee, Celebration 65, 2018
  • Executive Committee/Outreach Co-Chair, Celebration 60, 2013
  • Outreach Committee, Celebration 55, 2008
  • Harvard Law School Association of New Jersey, Trustee, 2005-2009

Civic Activities

Civic & Charitable Organizations

Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey, Board of Advisors, 2022-present

Pingry Alumni Association

  • Vice President, 2020-present
  • Director, 2017-2020

Firm Committees

Kristin serves or has served in the following leadership role(s) at FBT Gibbons:

Partner Personnel Committee, Member

Women’s Initiative Committee, Member

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee, Member

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