Orin founded the Employment Division of Gardy & Notis in 2013, to further his mission of recovering wages for employees who were underpaid in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the laws of New York. The Employment Division has since recovered millions of dollars for employees in class and collective actions including:

• A $5,000,000 collective action recovery for employees of a multinational media company who was alleged to have denied employees overtime pay
• A $2,000,000 class action recovery for nurses (RNs and LPNs) and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who alleged they were denied straight time and overtime pay due to an unlawful “automatic deduction” for breaks they did not take
• A $1,000,000 class action recovery for newspaper delivery drivers who alleged that they were misclassified as independent contractors and, as a result, were subject to deductions that would be unlawful if they were properly classified as employees;
• An $850,000 recovery for employees of a medical/dental payment processing company who alleged they were misclassified as independent contractors and, as a result, were subject to deductions that would be unlawful if they were properly classified as employees;
• A $750,000 class action recovery for nurses (RNs and LPNs) who alleged they were not paid for all hours worked including overtime;
• A $250,000 class action recovery for bus drivers who alleged they were not paid for all hours worked including overtime
• A $250,000 collective action recovery for employees of a multinational media company who was alleged to have denied employees overtime pay

Orin Kurtz also represents employees who have been denied retirement benefits in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and is currently one of the class counsel in a 210,000 member class action against the General Electric Company.

In addition to representing employees in class and collective actions, the Employment Division has expanded to represent employees of all levels—from C-suite executives to restaurant workers in individual, non-class matters including:

• Counseling an orthopedic surgeon in employment contract negotiations with a private practice;
• Representing an OB GYN in severance negotiations with a major hospital system;
• Representing a clean energy industry executive in a lawsuit for fraudulent inducement into employment and subsequent wrongful termination;
• Counseling the Chief Operating Officer of a not-for-profit health company in contract negotiations;
• Counseling a cosmetics company executive in negotiations for an employment agreement and a phantom equity stock plan;
• Representing an insurance salesman in litigation concerning an allegedly unenforceable non-solicitation provision;
• Negotiating a back pay award for an employee of a major utility company who claimed the employer breached its fiduciary duties under ERISA by placing him in the wrong retirement plan;
• Counseling a Human Resources executive in the negotiation of an employment contract;
• Advising and representing employees in all aspects of employment agreements and severance agreements including salary negotiations, non-compete provisions, non-solicitation agreements, confidentiality agreements, and garden leave provisions.

The Employment Division has also represented employees in litigation related to immigration issues including:

• A Canadian employee whose employer refused to correct errors on his TN Visa application and who was facing deportation as a result (employee sought a temporary restraining order and the employer agreed to fix the errors on his visa application; after being out of status for one year and subject to a ten-year ban, USCIS approved the visa application “nunc pro tunc” and the employee is now legal in the country);
• An Australian employee on an E3 visa whose employer who did not pay the employee the amounts represented in a Labor Condition Application;
• An Australian employee on an E3 visa in employment contract negotiations;
• An Australian employee in severance negotiations that implicated an E3 visa.

The Employment Division also represents select employers in counseling and contract negotiation including:

• Serving as US employment counsel for a 600-employee, multinational advertising company headquartered in London;
• Serving as US employment counsel for a multinational advertising company headquartered in Paris;
• General employment counseling, drafting and negotiation of employment agreements and severance agreements, and counseling regarding compliance with various state and federal laws including the Fair Labor Standards Act, the New York Labor Law, Title VII, the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, the Family Medical Leave Act, the New York State, the New York Paid Family Leave law.

Orin also contributes to legal scholarship. He is a frequent speaker at local and national employment law conferences, including NELA New York in September, 2023, the American Bar Association Employment Rights & Responsibilities Committee Midwinter Meetings in 2014 and 2015, and the 2016 National CLE Conference in Vail, Colorado.Orin also presents continuing legal education seminars about class and collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state law for CLE providers including Marino Institute for Continuing Legal Education and Lawline CLE. In addition, Orin was a regional editor of the 2017 American Bar Association’s treatise Employment At Will, A State-By-State Survey (2d Edition) and the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 updates of the same publication.