Hillary Schwab joined the firm in 2005.  Her practice focuses exclusively on plaintiff-side employment litigation.  Her case load is split between class actions brought on behalf of individuals whose rights have been violated under the wage laws and cases on behalf of individuals who have suffered discrimination based on race, gender, disability, or age and/or have suffered retaliation for challenging their employers’ unlawful employment practices.

After law school, Ms. Schwab clerked for Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and then for Judge Leonard I. Garth for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  Ms. Schwab then spent a year at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York as a Blackmun Fellow, litigating cases concerning reproductive rights in state and federal courts all over the country.  She served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Unit at the Wisconsin Department of Justice from 2003 to 2005.

Major Cases

Don DiFiore et al. v. American Airlines (U.S. Dist. Ct. Mass. 2008) (jury verdict in favor of skycaps, finding that airline violated state tips law and interfered with skycaps' relationship with passengers by charging $2 per bag and not allowing skycaps to keep the proceeds of the charge)

Donald Benoit et al. v. The Federalist, Inc., (Suffolk Superior Court 2007) (jury verdict in favor of class of Federalist restaurant waitstaff who did not receive total proceeds of service charges added to function bills)

Calcagno, et al. v. High Country Investor, Inc., d/b/a Hilltop Steak House, Essex County Superior Court Case No. 03-0707:  Co-counsel in case in which plaintiffs won a jury verdict totaling approximately $2 million on claims that the Hilltop Steak House had failed to distribute all service charges from functions to servers in violation of the Massachusetts Tips Law and had fired the four named plaintiffs in retaliation for them asserting their rights under the wage laws.

Cooney, et al. v. Compass Group Foodservice and Northeastern University, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 632 (Mass. App. Ct. Aug. 1, 2007):  Co-counsel in case in which the Massachusetts Appeals Court held that Northeastern’s “service charges” for functions were “service charges” within the meaning of the Massachusetts Tips Law and that, therefore, Northeastern was required to distribute to servers the total proceeds from those service charges.

State of Wisconsin v. Menard, Inc., Eau Claire County:  As an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, prosecuted one of the largest home improvement store chains in the country for violations of environmental wastewater discharge and hazardous waste laws.  Obtained the largest court-ordered penalty for an environmental violation ever in the State of Wisconsin (more than $2 million).

Simat Corp. v. Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, 203 Ariz. 454, 56 P.3d 28 (Ariz. 2002): While a Blackmun Fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights, co-counsel in case in which the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that, under the Arizona Constitution. The state could not refuse to fund abortions for indigent women whose health was threatened by pregnancy.

Education

Columbia Law School, J.D., 1999
Columbia Law Review, Notes Committee, 1998-99

Brown University, A.B. 1995
Major:  Classics—Greek and Latin
Studied at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, Italy, spring 1994

Bar and Court Admissions

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

State of New York

Federal courts:

• U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits
• U.S. District Courts for the District of Massachusetts, Southern District of New York, Eastern District of Wisconsin, and Western District of Wisconsin

Hillary Schwab
Partner

617-367-7200
617-367-4820 (fax)
hschwab@prle.com

Practice Areas

Employment law, including class action wage and hour litigation and individual discrimination and retaliation cases (in state and federal court)

Staff Assistant

Joseph Hunt
Jhunt@prle.com