Office: New York City, NY
Phone: (212)  239-4999
Fax: (212)  239-1311
mwoods@msek.com
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Melissa S. Woods is Of Counsel to Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., and is part of the Labor and Employment Law practice groups.  Ms. Woods represents individuals, unions and union members in all aspects of federal and state litigation, arbitrations and administrative hearings.  Ms. Woods also advises employers on best practices and provides anti-harassment and anti-discrimination trainings.

Prior to joining the firm in October 2008, Ms. Woods served as a Section Chief in the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”) where she enforced federal, state and local antidiscrimination laws in a variety of areas including employment.

Ms. Woods is an active member of the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Equal Employment Opportunity Law Committee, and a member of the New York State Bar Association.

 

Ms. Woods serves on the Board of the Fifth Avenue Committee, Inc., whose mission is to advance social and economic justice in South Brooklyn principally by developing and managing affordable housing and community facilities, creating economic opportunities, organizing residents and workers, providing student-centered adult education, and combating displacement caused by gentrification.

Ms. Woods has extensive experience speaking to lawyers, academics, and students on a variety of issues including employment law, affirmative action and higher education.  She has been a presenter or lecturer for the American Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, the Lawyers Coordinating Committee of the AFL-CIO, Yale Law School, Columbia University Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Rutgers University School of Law, CUNY School of Law, St. John’s University School of Law, Wesleyan University, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Institute for Racial and Environmental Law of Rio de Janeiro.

In 2007, Diversity & The Bar Magazine recognized Ms. Woods as one of “10 Up-and-Coming African American Lawyers to Watch.”

 

Ms. Woods graduated with Honors in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, and obtained her law degree from The George Washington University Law School, where she received the Thurgood Marshall Award for excellence and dedication to civil rights and civil liberties, and the J.B. Maurice Shapiro Public Service Fellowship. During law school, Ms. Woods interned at the U.S. Department of Justice, working in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division.  She also worked at two national civil rights organizations – the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Washington Office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Woods was a National Association for Public Interest Law Equal Justice Fellow.

Ms. Woods is a member of the State Bars of New York and New Jersey, and is admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the District of New Jersey and the Southern District of New York, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Sixth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. 

George Washington University School of Law, J.D., 1998

 

Wesleyan University, B.A., 1994