Gena B Usenheimer

Practice Areas

Wage-Hour Litigation, Single and Multi-Plaintiff Litigation, Transactional Risk Insurance

Career

Gena co-founded and now co-leads the Firm’s Transactional Risk Insurance practice, serving as underwriting counsel in the issuance of representation and warranty insurance policies. Under her leadership, the practice has expanded to cover approximately 90% of the market and draws on the expertise of more than 60 Seyfarth attorneys worldwide. She regularly serves as lead underwriting counsel on complex transactions involving acquisitions of businesses or asset classes with valuations exceeding $1 billion.

In addition to her transactional work, Gena represents and defends employers in high-stakes single-plaintiff and multi-plaintiff discrimination matters. Gena also handles single-plaintiff defamation and business tort matters. She has recently secured consistent victories in both state and federal courts, frequently prevailing on dispositive motions, including motions to dismiss and for summary judgment. Gena also advises employers in complex class and collective action litigation, with a particular focus on discrimination claims. Her recent successes include defeating class certification in three separate state court pregnancy discrimination cases. In the wage and hour space, her practice emphasizes New York-focused compliance issues, as well as the classification of exempt employees and independent contractors.

Professional Memberships

New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers (Member); New York City Bar Association (Member).

Publications

Co-Host, “Into the Breach” an RWI Podcast; Contributing Author, “Wage & Hour Litigation Blog”; Frequent CLE presenter.