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Bruce L. Atkins is the Senior Managing Partner at Deutsch Atkins & Kleinfeldt P.C., a prominent plaintiff employment law firm in the tri-state area.

Mr. Atkins believes employees’ rights should be aggressively pursued when they’ve been wrongfully dealt with by their employers. He brings this philosophy to his practice when considering each case and its potential outcomes. “The practice of plaintiffs’ employment law has allowed me to pursue the ideals that I graduated law school with by helping ordinary people win against large companies,” he says.

A graduate of Seton Hall Law School and of the University of Connecticut, Mr. Atkins is admitted to practice in the State Court of New Jersey, the Federal Court of New Jersey, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as well as the State of New York, the State of Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court. Having practiced law since 1977, he has extensive experience in commercial litigation, partnership and shareholder disputes and dissolutions as well as in restrictive covenant and non-compete matters. He is also a court certified mediator and has handled numerous mediation matters.

Mr. Atkins has had several major reported cases in the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division of the State of New Jersey. In addition, he has tried numerous cases in the State and Federal Courts in New Jersey as well as in Federal Court in New York. He obtained one of New Jersey’s largest verdicts in a single plaintiff discrimination case in the amount of $6.5 million which included $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The Court also awarded $638,000 in counsel fees and costs. That verdict was upheld on appeal. He recently obtained a $935,000 jury verdict, plus attorney fees, which was also upheld on appeal in July 2019. Clients’ results may vary depending on the particular facts and legal circumstances.

He is a member of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ), the American Bar Association (ABA), the New Jersey Bar Association (NJSBA), the New York Bar Association (NYSBA), the Florida Bar, the Diversity Law Institute, the Trial Law Institute, and the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) and NELA NJ, New Jersey’s chapter.

He has published several articles in well-known law journals including “Oral Employment Contracts Under New Jersey Law,” “Are Employees Still Second Class Citizens,” Labor and Employment Law Quarterly (1994) and “Complete Anti-Discrimination Policies: The Key in Business Insurance,” Crain’s publication (October 1997). In addition, he has been a guest lecturer at both NELA’s national convention and at NJAJ on trial techniques and at Lorman and ACI seminars on employment issues. From the early 2000s through 2008, he made frequent television appearances as commentator on Court TV. He has served on the New Jersey District IIA ethics committee and the New Jersey District IIB ethics committee.

In more than four decades of practice, Mr. Atkins has achieved numerous distinctions for his legal prowess.

Since 1997, he has held an AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating, the highest rating given by Martindale-Hubbell®.

Since 2005, he has been included every year in the prestigious New Jersey Super Lawyers list. This honor, bestowed upon a recipient by the votes of his peers, is a powerful nod to the skill he brings to the area of employment law.

In 2008, he was invited to become a Fellow in The Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), a close-knit, peer-selected and aggressively diverse honorary society of 3,500 of seasoned trial lawyers. The LCA makes up less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers, vigorously vetted for skills, expertise, and service.

In 2019, he was selected to National Trial Lawyers Top 100 — an invitation-only organization comprised of at least 100 trial lawyers from each state or region who meet stringent qualifications as civil plaintiff and/or criminal defense trial advocates.

Go to the following links for descriptions of selection methodologies for Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review RatingsSuper Lawyers and The National Trial Lawyers Top 100. No aspect of these advertisements has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

The National Trial Lawyers

 

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