Dean L. Silverberg

Dean Silverberg is the lawyer employers think of when they face difficult challenges involving their employees, governmental regulators, and administrative enforcement agencies.

For more than 35 years, Dean has provided financial institutions, hospitality groups, health care industry clients, law firms, public-sector entities, and nonprofits, among others, with informed and balanced advice based on his knowledge of their business needs, risk tolerance, and compliance goals. Focused on helping his clients avoid the expense and distraction of protracted litigation in an ever-increasing litigious legal environment, Dean assists his clients in resolving employee disputes as early as possible in often more efficient and cost-effective judicial forum alternatives, such as mediation and arbitration. In addition, he works with his clients to resolve internal employee relations issues and conducts internal investigations of claims of workplace discrimination and harassment. He also helps employers respond to state and federal regulatory agency inquiries and audits and to claims concerning wage and hour violations and worker misclassification.

Earlier in his career, Dean served as Deputy Counsel to New York City Mayor Ed Koch, focusing and advising on public-sector labor relations, personnel management, and civil service administration. The mayor appointed him as an alternate member, and then a full member, of the New York City Board of Collective Bargaining (BCB), a position Dean held for nearly a decade following his initial appointment. At the request of Mayor Koch and his successor in office, Mayor David Dinkins, Dean continued as a full member of the BCB after leaving the Mayor’s Office. Dean credits his City Hall experience to his understanding of how large, multifaceted organizations operate internally, and to his ability to counsel C-suite executives in making decisions that impact their workforces. When formulating strategies and solutions, he helps clients remain flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances in order to move forward.

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Prior to his work with Mayor Koch, Dean honed his employee relations skills with the NYC Health & Hospital Corporation as Director of Labor Relations with Bellevue Hospital Center, a 1,200-bed public hospital facility with then close to 5,000 employees in a multi-contract collective bargaining environment.

As Chinese-owned businesses contemplated expansion into the United States, Dean led the Epstein Becker Green China Initiative Team in helping those companies navigate the legal and regulatory landscape and to understand the cultural and business nuances impacting their employment practices. During this time, Dean regularly traveled to China to establish special affiliations with Chinese law firms, visited the headquarters of his U.S.-based clients, and presented seminars to Chinese businessmen and women considering expanding their companies’ presence in the United States.

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• The Best Lawyers in America^©: Employment Law – Management (2021 to 2025)

Education

• New York University School of Law (LL.M., 1986)
  • Labor Law
  • Awarded the Seymour Goldstein Memorial Prize for Academic Excellence in the Area of Labor Relations
• Brooklyn Law School (J.D., 1977)
• Binghamton University, State University of New York (B.A., with honors, 1974)

Professional & Community Involvement

• New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section
• NYU School of Law, Center for Labor and Employment Law, Member, Advisory Board