Practice Areas

  • Civil Litigation
  • Labor & Employment

Admissions

  • New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of New York
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
  • District of Connecticut
  • U.S. Supreme Court

Richard Reice

Partner

Phone: 646.880.3714
Email: rreice@messner.com
Office: New York

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BackgroundEducation & HonorsAwardsAssociations

Richard Reice is a partner in the Messner Reeves New York office and focuses his practice on civil litigation and labor and employment law. He has extensive experience as a labor and employment lawyer in many different roles including private practice litigator,  in-house counsel, CHRO, and as an employment law arbitrator and mediator. Formerly, Richard was in-house L&E counsel for Frontier Telephone and then its EVP of HR, also he serves as the Chief Counsel and People Office to Cornbread Hospitality Group.

A veteran litigator with impressive courtroom victories, Richard has tried numerous federal and state court cases to verdict. His success extends to arbitration and administrative tribunals such as the NLRB. He filed the very first federal Defend Trade Secret Act case (Mission Capital v. Romaka, SDNY) and obtained the first DTSA seizure order to secure the return of thousands of misappropriated computer files.

Richard has expertise in litigation and resolving matters involving theft of trade secrets, non-competition agreements, breach of contract, wage and hour matters, employee classification and prevailing wage issues, defamation, ADA, Title VII, and ADEA workplace discrimination. Additionally, he has extensive experience negotiating union labor agreements, litigating unfair labor charges, and grievance arbitrations.

Richard is a thought leader in the area of algorithm bias and  employment discrimination with regards to  predictive AI automated employment decision tools used for resume review, promotion decisions, etc.

He is also an authority in the area of gender discrimination involving gender identity,  including the drafting of policies and consulting with developers on issues  pertaining to access to employer and places of public accommodation by gender non-conforming individuals.  He stays updated on the local and national laws affecting such things as  participation on sports teams and  access to gendered bathrooms and other shared spaces by those who are gender non-conforming. He provides legal guidance on real estate and architecture, as well as training to relevant staff.

Richard regularly advises on employee relations, corporate acquisitions and restructurings, regulatory compliance, OSHA, and workforce management issues. Likewise, he conducts a range of on-site trainings, including harassment prevention and workplace safety.

In his spare time, Richard plays marginal tennis but better pickleball, and when the weather is good, he can often be found on his road bike cruising down a country road.

  • Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Law Journal, J.D.
  • University of Michigan, Honors, Political Science, B.A.
  • National Law Journal – Employment Trailblazer, 2019
  • Benchmark Litigation – Labor & Employment Star – Northeast, 2019
  • Super Lawyers – Metro New York Edition – Employment & Labor, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
  • ABA
  • NYSBA
  • Federal Bar Council, Inn of Court Master
  • International Bar Association
  • SDNY Court Appointed Mediator for Employment Law
  • SHRM

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Messner Reeves LLP
1550 Wewatta St. Suite 710
Denver, CO 80202
Phone: (303) 623-1800.