Education: Fordham University (’94) and Fordham University School of Law (’97)
Bar Admission: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Washington D.C., Eastern District Court of New York, Southern District Court of New York, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and United States Supreme Court
Additional Credentials: Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH) and Institute Faculty Member, Coach Certified in the Workplace Big Five and Hogan Personality Assessments
EPT Legal LLC focuses on resolving workplace issues and challenges through training, internal investigations, alternative dispute resolution and professional coaching. Our firm was founded by Elena Paraskevas-Thadani, Esq., a former equity partner of the law firm Littler Mendelson, the largest global employer and labor practice in the world. While at Littler (2005 – 2015), Elena represented employers in complex and multi-party class-action, wage and hour, discrimination lawsuits in federal and state courts. Elena successfully represented companies and Department of Labor, Attorney General, EEOC and other government agency audits and investigations. As an employment law litigator and during many times in her career, Elena also successfully represented employees and individual plaintiffs, securing millions of dollars in settlements for her clients, prior to transitioning from litigation to her work exclusively as a neutral.
Elena is an experienced trainer having conducted hundreds of EEO and other compliance training sessions for executives of public and private companies and developed training programs nationally on professional conduct, diversity and other compliance topics. She is trained on facilitating sessions on professional conduct, collaboration and communication, dispute resolution, anger management, and creating a culture of belonging.
Elena specializes in sensitive and urgent workplace investigations involving senior executives, is an Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH) and is licensed by the New York Department of State as a Private Investigator. Elena is on the Board of Directors for the international Association for Workplace Investigators and is a cofounder of its NY Metro Area Local Circle. Elena is also certified in conducting investigations and hearings under the new Title IX regulations.
As an experienced employment attorney and trained mediator and arbitrator, Elena resolves employment cases, wage and hour disputes, discrimination/harassment matters, whistleblower, restrictive covenant and class action lawsuits. Elena is certified by the Southern District of New York, the New York Peace Institute and serves on the US District Court Eastern District of New York’s mediation and arbitration panel.
Elena previously practiced plaintiffs’ and defendants’ general commercial litigation and employment law at Katten Muchin Rosenman (2002-2005) and Seward and Kissel LLP (1999-2000), and worked for Kaplan Fox, a plaintiffs’ class action law firm as a summer associate in 1996. In addition to her experience in private practice, Elena served as a law clerk to two neutrals who are members of the federal judiciary: The Honorable Andrew J. Peck, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (2000-2002) and The Honorable Nicholas Tsoucalas of the US Court of International Trade (1997-1999).
While at Fordham Law in the ‘90’s, Elena served as a senior editor of the Urban Law Journal, and founded the Fordham Law Chapter of the Unemployment Action Center, through which she provided pro bono advocacy to unemployment insurance claimants. She also worked as a student advocate at the Northern Manhattan Improvement Center, where she provided services and representation to public assistance applicants and recipients. Elena also served as a student intern for EDNY Judge Frederic Block, Magistrate A. Simon Chrein and for one year (1996-1997) with the US Attorney’s office Criminal Division. Elena is a fluent Greek speaker.
For a list of training programs Elena has attended to comply with Title IX Regulations 34 CFR Section 106.45(b)(10): http://www.eptlegal.com/title-ix-credentials/