Education: Cornell University (’85) and Harvard Law School (’89)
Bar Admission: California and Washington D.C.
Additional Credentials: Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH)

Debra Osofsky is a graduate of Harvard Law School and of the Cornell School of Industrial Labor Relations and has been practicing law, advising clients, providing executive leadership and/or training professionals for almost 30 years.

Debra began her legal career in law school working with police officers in criminal investigation matters under Robert Morgenthau at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.   Thereafter she practiced as a general litigator with Jeffer Mangels and as a general litigator and criminal defense attorney with Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge, before specializing in labor and employment law.

Debra joined the Air Line Pilots Association, rising to Senior Contract Administrator over the course of a decade of negotiating and administering contracts, advocating in arbitrations, and teaching pilots leadership, negotiation, and advocacy skills.  While at Air Line Pilots Association, Debra also investigated  sexual harassment complaints, employee conflicts, and other workplace disputes and  proposed resolutions, and recommendations involving workplace issues. Debra is a certified workplace investigator certified by Employee and Labor Relations Academy.

Among her many professional appointments, Debra has served as the National Director of News and Broadcast at the American Federation of Television and Radio artists (now SAG-AFTRA), where she represented 9,000 television and radio professionals.  She has also served as the Executive Director of the faculty union at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers) Biomedical.  As a workplace expert, she recently completed an extended engagement with the Amalgamated Transit Union, where she worked for a newly-elected administration, applying a union-side version of management consulting to advise the officers on human resources policy, staff and organizational responsibilities, and work flow.   She currently teaches labor law, negotiation, contract language drafting and other workplace-related subjects with Cornell University’s Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution.

Debra is licensed in California and the District of Columbia.