Freddie Fender Verified Attorney
Louis Pechman
Employment Law
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From Restaurant Floors to Executive Suites: Louis Pechman Built His Career Where Pay, Power, and Reputation Collide
A restaurant worker missing overtime and a senior executive confronting harassment may appear to occupy different worlds. Yet both can face the same unsettling reality: a workplace dispute has placed their income, reputation, or future in someone else’s hands. Louis Pechman has spent more than four decades working at precisely that intersection—and learning how employment conflicts look from every side.
His perspective began taking shape before he entered private practice. As a Field Examiner for the National Labor Relations Board, Pechman gained early experience with the government agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law. He later became in-house labor counsel for the New York Daily News, where workplace decisions had to be evaluated from management’s side. Today, his practice represents both employees and employers. That range allows him to recognize not only how a dispute begins, but also how each party is likely to explain its decisions once documents, testimony, and money are under scrutiny.
Pechman’s work on restaurant pay demonstrates what that perspective can accomplish. He has litigated more than 500 cases involving federal and New York wage laws. Across more than 200 restaurant-pay matters, he and his team have recovered over $30 million for workers.
He served as lead counsel for the private employee plaintiffs in the Chickie’s & Pete’s litigation, where their settlement and a parallel U.S. Department of Labor resolution produced approximately $8.5 million in combined relief. His record also includes a $3.15 million settlement for Sparks Steak House employees. These cases required more than identifying a mistake on a paycheck. They demanded an understanding of how hours, tips, overtime, and payroll practices affected large groups of workers over time.
His work reaches the other end of the workplace hierarchy as well. Pechman Law Group secured a seven-figure settlement for a female executive at a Fortune 100 company who experienced harassment by its chief executive officer. The firm also obtained a $1.8 million settlement for an executive at a major metropolitan hospital. Those confidential, high-level disputes carried different pressures: a career, professional reputation, and sensitive workplace facts all had to be protected while a consequential resolution was pursued.
Pechman has also turned his experience into public education. He founded WaiterPay.com to explain restaurant wage and tipping laws to workers and owners in understandable language. At Fordham University School of Law, he teaches “Wage Theft: Employee Rights and Employer Responsibilities.” He has also spent decades developing programs that teach other attorneys how to handle wage-and-hour and employment-discrimination cases.
That combination of litigation and education has made him a recurring voice in the public discussion of workplace law. The Wall Street Journal and Law360 have profiled his restaurant-pay practice, while the New York Post has sought his commentary and the New York Law Journal has published his analysis. His peers have selected him to New York Super Lawyers every year from 2007 through 2026, and The Best Lawyers in America has recognized him since 2008. The firm’s 4.9-star Google rating based on 246 reviews adds substantial consumer validation to that professional standing.
For a worker questioning missing pay, an executive protecting a career, or an employer facing a serious claim, Pechman offers a valuable breadth of vision. He understands the rules governing a workplace, the evidence that can determine a dispute, and the human consequences when compensation, authority, and professional standing collide. From restaurant floors to executive suites, that is the territory his career has prepared him to navigate.
That combination of experience, reputation, verified professional standing, and public credibility is why Louis Pechman was included on FreddieFender.com.
Credentials
- Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, 1979.
- Juris Doctor, Fordham University School of Law, 1983.
- Admitted to practice in New Jersey.
- Admitted to the United States Supreme Court.
- Admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- Admitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- Admitted to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
- Admitted to the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.
- Admitted to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
- Member, American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law.
- Member, New York State Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section.
- Speaks English and Spanish.
Career Highlights / Proven Experience
Career Highlights
- Firm Founder: Founded Pechman Law Group PLLC in January 2015 and leads a firm representing both employees and employers in workplace disputes.
- More Than Four Decades in Employment Law: Has practiced labor and employment law for more than 40 years, handling wage-and-hour claims, discrimination and harassment litigation, employment contracts, restrictive covenants, independent-contractor disputes, and union-management matters.
- Judicially Recognized Experience: A federal court expressly acknowledged Pechman’s “significant and specialized experience” and professional reputation in wage-and-hour litigation.
- Academic Appointment: Serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, teaching “Wage Theft: Employee Rights and Employer Responsibilities.”
- Early Regulatory and In-House Perspective: Began his labor-law career as a Field Examiner for the National Labor Relations Board and later served as in-house labor counsel for the New York Daily News, giving him experience with both government enforcement and management-side workplace issues.
- Bar Leadership and Attorney Education: Chaired the New York County Lawyers’ Association Committee on Labor Relations and Employment Law from 1994 through 1998. He subsequently developed and moderated the association’s longstanding employment-discrimination program and remained active as program chair for its 2025 wage-and-hour course.
- Restaurant and Hospitality Leadership: Chaired the New York City Bar Association’s Restaurant and Hospitality Law Committee from 2015 through 2017 and has led continuing-legal-education programs addressing employment and pay issues in that industry.
- Restaurant-Pay Education: Founded WaiterPay.com, a consumer and industry resource explaining New York restaurant wage, overtime, tip-pool, and other pay requirements to workers and employers.
- Media and Publishing Authority: His restaurant-worker advocacy has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal and Law360. He has been quoted by the New York Post, written extensively for the New York Law Journal, and published workplace-law analysis in The New York Times.
- Sustained Peer Recognition: Selected to the New York Super Lawyers list every year from 2007 through 2026, including Top 100 New York–Metro recognition in 2013 and 2018. He has also been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America since 2008.
- Professional Distinctions: Holds an AV Preeminent peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell and was selected as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2015.
- Tier 1 Employment-Law Rankings: Pechman Law Group holds 2026 Tier 1 New York City rankings for Employment Law–Individuals, Employment Law–Management, and Litigation–Labor and Employment.
Proven Experience
- More Than 500 Wage-and-Hour Cases: Has litigated more than 500 federal and state cases involving the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law, demonstrating extensive experience with overtime, minimum-wage, tip, and employee-classification disputes.
- More Than $30 Million Recovered for Restaurant Workers: Pechman and his legal team have recovered more than $30 million in back wages and damages for restaurant workers across more than 200 restaurant-pay cases.
- Approximately $8.5 Million Coordinated Restaurant-Pay Resolution — In re Chickie’s & Pete’s Wage & Hour Litigation: Served as lead counsel for the private employee plaintiffs in related litigation. The private settlement and a parallel U.S. Department of Labor consent judgment together delivered approximately $8.5 million in back wages and damages to tipped employees.
- $3.15 Million Restaurant-Worker Settlement — Duchene v. Michael Cetta, Inc.: Represented approximately 200 Sparks Steak House employees in a wage-and-tip settlement that produced substantial compensation for servers and other front-of-house workers.
- $1.8 Million Housekeeping-Worker Settlement — Cruz Guerrero v. Montefiore Health System, Inc.: Represented housekeeping employees in resolving claims involving unpaid overtime, minimum wages, pay frequency, and required wage notices.
- $1.5 Million Factory-Worker Settlement — Abarza Rios v. Spirit Pharmaceuticals LLC: Helped obtain court approval of a wage-and-hour settlement for factory employees alleging unpaid overtime and late wage payments.
- $912,500 Restaurant-Employee Settlement — Manley v. Midan Restaurant Inc.: Served as lead counsel for a class of front-of-house restaurant employees in resolving minimum-wage, overtime, tip-credit, and related pay claims.
- $560,000 Trial Judgment — Hussain v. Burton and Doyle of Great Neck LLC: Obtained a judgment following a five-day trial for restaurant servers pursuing minimum-wage and overtime claims.
- Employer-Side Appellate Victory — Shannon v. New York City Transit Authority: Represented the transit authorities in obtaining dismissal of a disability-discrimination lawsuit; the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the judgment.
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