Patricia Kakalec
Patricia Kakalec has represented employees, and the interests of employees, as a lawyer in both the private and public sectors. From representing migrant farmworkers in class actions to litigating labor cases on behalf of the State of New York, Tricia has dedicated her career to fighting for the rights of workers. Her practice currently focuses on representing employees in wage-and-hour and discrimination cases, and on advising employees about severance agreements, employment contracts, and other legal issues.
Before entering private practice, Tricia served as the Bureau Chief, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Special Counsel of the Labor Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office, and as Chair of that office’s statewide Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. Tricia also co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the Workers’ Rights Law Center of New York and worked as an attorney with Farmworker Legal Services of New York (n.k.a. the Worker Justice Center of New York), representing farmworkers and other low-wage workers around New York State. She has been appointed class counsel in employment and human trafficking class actions throughout the country. Tricia began her legal career as an associate with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP in New York City.
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Tricia received her law degree from Harvard Law School, cum laude, and her undergraduate degree in history and religion from Duke University. She clerked for the Hon. Denis R. Hurley in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York and has been a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School (awarded to “outstanding public interest lawyers”) and an Echoing Green fellow. Tricia speaks Spanish and often represents Spanish-speaking clients.
Tricia regularly speaks and conducts trainings on employment law topics. Her most recent publication is an article about joint employment in the volume “Who is an Employee and Who is the Employer?: Proceedings of the New York University 68th Annual Conference on Labor” (Series editor: Samuel Estreicher; Volume editor: Kati L. Griffith) (with Annie Smith). She serves on the Board of Directors of Catholic Migration Services and previously served as a member of the New York State Industrial Board of Appeals.
Tricia resides in Brooklyn and also spends time in the Kakalec Leung office in Kingston, New York.