Cyrus E. Dugger

Cyrus E. Dugger is an employment mediator and the Principal of The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC. His mediation practice focuses on employment discrimination, retaliation, disability accommodation, protected leave, wage-and-hour, severance, and workplace-related disputes.

Mr. Dugger brings to mediation the practical judgment of an employment litigator who has represented hundreds of employees in individual, class, and collective matters. His litigation background includes work on Chen-Oster v. Goldman Sachs, a landmark gender discrimination class action that settled for $215 million, and a disparate impact class action against the Connecticut Department of Correction that secured $3 million and substantial pension benefits for the class.

As a mediator, Mr. Dugger focuses on helping parties move past positional bargaining and toward realistic settlement movement. His approach is grounded in the belief that employment disputes often require more than the mechanical exchange of numbers. Parties need to be heard, litigation risk must be tested honestly, and settlement proposals must be tied to facts, damages, practical risk, and the human dynamics that often drive employment cases.

Mr. Dugger is particularly experienced with disputes involving the New York City Human Rights Law, the New York State Human Rights Law, Title VII, the ADA, the FMLA, the FLSA, and related federal and state employment statutes. His mediation work is especially suited for matters involving failure to accommodate, mental health-based disability accommodations, protected leaves of absence, FMLA retaliation and interference, wage-and-hour claims, independent contractor misclassification, retaliation claims, and pre-litigation employment negotiations.

Mr. Dugger's mediation style is direct, structured, and resolution-focused. He works with counsel and parties to identify the true barriers to settlement, separate legal risk from emotional impasse, and develop practical settlement structures that can close disputes efficiently.

Mr. Dugger is a graduate of the inaugural classes of the Eastern District of New York Pilot Mediator Incubator and the JAMS Diversity Fellowship. He serves on the mediation panels of the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York. In 2023, following a competitive merit-selection process, Mr. Dugger was honored to be among the candidates recommended by an SDNY Merit Selection Panel to the Court's Board of Judges for consideration in connection with the appointment of a full-time United States Magistrate Judge.

Before founding The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC, Mr. Dugger served as a law clerk to the Honorable Victoria A. Roberts of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He also worked as an associate at Outten & Golden LLP, as a staff attorney with South Brooklyn Legal Services, and as the first Senior Fellow in Civil Justice at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.

Mr. Dugger's goal in mediation is not simply to shuttle offers. It is to help parties hear the real risks on both sides, understand the cost of non-resolution, and reach durable written agreements that allow everyone to move forward.