Jeffrey H. Ruzal

"Compliance doesn’t have to come at the expense of business goals. My role is to help employers navigate workforce management complexities with practical strategies that protect their bottom line.” —Jeff Ruzal

Jeff Ruzal is a co-chair of Epstein Becker Green’s Wage and Hour practice and advises clients on all aspects of wage and hour law.

He regularly serves as lead counsel on prominent national collective and class action litigations, and partners with clients on large-scale internal audits, federal and state agency investigations, and high-stakes corporate due diligence projects. Jeff also develops wage and hour policies, drafts incentive pay, commission, and equity participation agreements, and delivers management training on best practices. Jeff’s background as a Trial Attorney for the Office of the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor gives him insight into how federal regulators think and operate. He uses that insight to anticipate enforcement priorities and craft strategies that withstand regulatory scrutiny.

Additionally, Jeff serves as a trusted, day-to-day employment counselor for in-house legal and HR teams—functioning, in many respects, as an extension of the general counsel’s office on workforce matters. Employers across financial services, technology, retail, health care, hospitality, and other industries turn to Jeff for practical counsel across the full range of employment issues. Jeff helps clients navigate terminations and other personnel decisions; mitigate the risk of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims; manage employee redundancies and reductions-in-force; and build sound, workable workplace policies and training programs.

Jeff is a main contributor to the firm’s award-winning Wage and Hour Defense Blog and a contributing author to Lexis Practice Advisor and the ABA FLSA Mid-Winter Report. He has been interviewed and quoted by NPR News, Law360, Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, and the Society for Human Resource Management, and he frequently speaks at national conferences and webinars on employment law topics. He has also written numerous articles published in, among other leading outlets, Law360, Thomson Reuters Practical Law, and Bender’s Labor & Employment Bulletin.

What Jeff Delivers for Clients

• U.S. DOL Insider Perspective: Having served as a Trial Attorney in the DOL’s Office of the Solicitor, Jeff understands government enforcement priorities from the inside—an advantage he uses to position employers favorably during federal and state agency investigations and to structure compliance programs that withstand regulatory scrutiny.
• Exposure Reduction in Wage and Hour Collective and Class Litigation: Jeff’s strategic approach to collective and class action defense has produced results well below initial exposure figures.
  • Jeff resolved a multi-thousand-plaintiff wage and hour class action in New York on behalf of a global financial services client for a small fraction of the approximate $150 million in total exposure.
  • Jeff successfully resolved a class dispute for a small percentage of a national retailer’s potential $25 million in exposure.
  • Jeff defended a national restaurant group in significant class actions and individual litigations, including discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, and a nationwide wage and hour class action that Jeff successfully resolved for a small fraction of the approximate $15 million in potential exposure.
• Cross-Industry Compliance Counsel: Jeff advises employers across all industries—including a global bank with nearly 50,000 employees and a web-based consumer goods company valued at $1 billion—on the full spectrum of employment compliance, including wage and hour classification audits and incentive compensation structure.
• Wage and Hour Counseling: Jeff advised a national web-based consumer packaged goods company valued at $1 billion on daily employment and HR issues. Strategic and cost-effective counseling helped the client achieve compliance, avoid litigation, and mitigate risk—including potential claims involving non-compete agreements, wage and hour, workplace policy, compensation and benefits, and discrimination and harassment.

• Assists a global bank with almost 50,000 employees across departments with all wage and hour counseling needs and litigation, including classification audits, compensation and incentive plans, compensable work policies, and all ad hoc legal inquiries and issues related to wage and hour. Jeff’s business-focused counseling ensures comprehensive compliance with all employment laws and regulations.
• Advises a national web-based consumer packaged goods company valued at $1 billion on daily employment and HR issues. Jeff’s cost-effective and strategic counseling has helped achieve compliance, avoid litigation, and mitigate risk. In addition to day-to-day counseling, Jeff has assisted the client in avoiding potential litigation with respect to non-compete, wage and hour, workplace policy, compensation and benefits, and discrimination and harassment issues.

• Mitigated potential total exposure in a novel wage and hour class action that affected thousands of a national retailer’s workforce located in New York State. Upon investigating and confirming that the client had inadvertently violated the statute at issue and faced approximately $25 million in exposure, Jeff strategically focused on mitigation by pursuing mediation. Through creative arguments, he successfully resolved the matter for less than $2 million.

• Helped a health care/nursing home company avoid potential wage and hour liability in connection with multiple, complex, and multifaceted federal and state department of labor investigations. Jeff leveraged relationships in federal and state departments of labor and mitigated potential substantial exposure with respect to back wages and penalties.

• Defended a national restaurant group in various, significant class actions and individual litigations, including wage and hour (over 500 employees), discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims.  Jeff successfully resolved a major class and collective action for a fraction of the potential $15 million exposure; resolved a single federal court litigation involving wage and hour, discrimination, and retaliation for a small fraction of the overall potential exposure; and successfully defended multiple trials before an administrative law judge for the New York State Human Rights Division.

• The Legal 500 United States, Workplace and Employment Counseling (2018)
• The Best Lawyers in America, Employment Law - Management (2023 to 2026)

Education

• New York Law School (J.D., cum laude)
• Hofstra University (B.A.)