Photo of Nigel F. Telman

Nigel F. Telman is the Managing Partner of the Firm’s Chicago office, leads the Employment practice in the Chicago office, and is co-head of the Labor Department’s national Employment Litigation & Arbitration Practice Group.

Nigel serves as a high-level strategic advisor to his clients on “bet the company” employment-related claims that often involve significant reputational risk. The nation’s leading organizations turn to Nigel to handle their most sensitive and challenging matters which, due to his involvement, often successfully result in non-public and confidential resolutions. When matters are unable to be settled, Nigel works with clients to strategically design a litigation strategy that advantageously positions them for successful dispositive motions, trial and the possibility of post-trial appeals.

A strategic advisor to boards and C-suite executives on the full spectrum of the employer/employee relationship, Nigel's nationwide practice is concentrated in litigating single and class action disputes arising out of claims of workplace harassment and employment discrimination, and in handling confidential workplace investigations. In addition, Nigel has significant experience defending and enforcing Restrictive Covenant Agreements, as well as protecting employers' trade secrets and other confidential information from misappropriation by former employees through the institution of emergency litigation seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief. Nigel utilizes his experience litigating employment-related disputes to counsel clients on effective ways to avoid litigation. His counseling practice focuses on training and advising clients on ways to improve all aspects of the employment relationship, including techniques on how to make effective hiring decisions; reviewing and revising employment policies, practices and procedures; and advising on employee disciplinary matters, reductions in force and termination decisions.

Providing the highest level of strategic advice and execution across all phases of the employee lifecycle from hire to exit, Nigel represents clients in a range of industries before state and federal courts throughout the country as well as before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, state and local administrative agencies, and the American Arbitration Association.

Nigel is ranked by Chambers USA in Illinois for Labor & Employment and his clients praise him as being "business-savvy and delivering stellar results. He is an extremely effective negotiator and has the highest degree of integrity in all of his dealings."

Proskauer and co-counsel Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”), a nationwide nonprofit disability rights legal center, triumphed in a Chicago court this month, obtaining a ruling that will lead to historic accessibility improvements for the more than 65,000 people with vision difficulties who live in Chicago. The Court granted summary judgment on claims that the City of Chicago discriminated against blind and low vision pedestrians under federal disability rights laws by failing to install accessible pedestrian signals (APS) at signalized intersections.  American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago, et al. v. City of Chicago, No. 1:19-cv-06322 (N.D. Ill.). 

Earlier this month, Proskauer – along with co-counsel Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”), a nationwide nonprofit disability rights legal center – obtained class certification in an important litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, brought on behalf of pedestrians with visual disabilities in the metropolitan Chicago

Earlier this week, Proskauer—along with Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a nationwide nonprofit disability rights legal center—filed a putative class action against the City of Chicago on behalf of the American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago (ACBMC) and three individual plaintiffs with vision-related disabilities. The suit challenges the City’s systemic failure to provide accessible crosswalk signals for people who have significant vision impairments—a failure which violates both Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act.

The complaint alleges that only 11 out of Chicago’s 2,670 intersections have accessible pedestrian signals (APS) which provide information to the visually-impaired. As a result, pedestrians with vision-related disabilities can safely cross fewer than half of one percent of Chicago’s intersections. In addition to placing visually-impaired Chicagoans in ongoing physical danger, the City’s failure to address these inadequacies represents continuing violations of federal law which requires, among other things, that public entities operate “each service, program, or activity” so that they are “readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.” 28 C.F.R. § 35.150.