AI Layoff Claims: When the Algorithm Picked Who Got Fired

David H. Tracey, Firm Managing Partner | Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP

David H. Tracey is the Firm Managing Partner of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP and Co-Chair of the firm’s Public Interest Litigation Practice Group. His practice concentrates on discrimination and retaliation, wage and hour, civil rights, and employee benefits matters, representing individuals and classes in cases that run from complaint through appeal.

• Education & Credentials

David earned his J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from New York University School of Law and his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University. He clerked for the Honorable Garland E. Burrell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. He is admitted to the New York and New Jersey bars, the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, and Eleventh Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey.

• Recognition & Leadership

David was named to The National Law Journal’s Rising Stars of the Plaintiffs Bar in 2024 and the New York Law Journal’s Rising Stars in 2024. New York Super Lawyers selected him as a Top-Rated Employment Litigation attorney in 2025 and 2026 and a Rising Star in 2023 and 2024. He appears on Benchmark Litigation’s 40 and Under list for 2025, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Civil Rights and Plaintiff Employment Lawyers for 2025 and 2026, and Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for 2025. As Firm Managing Partner, he leads the firm’s practice across its national offices.

• Professional Involvement

David co-authored “Employers Should Owe a Duty of Loyalty to Their Workers,” published in the Cardozo Law Review – De Novo in 2020, and an opinion piece on wage theft enforcement in City & State NY in 2023. He has served as amicus counsel before the Second Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Before entering the law, he worked as a community organizer in New York City on tenants’ rights, environmental health, and gun control issues.

• Experience

David served as class counsel for over 100,000 participants in the Walgreens Retirement Savings Plan, producing a $13.75 million proposed settlement, and litigated discrimination claims for Forest Pharmaceuticals sales representatives that culminated in a $4 million court-approved class settlement. His matters include In re: GE ERISA Litigation, which resulted in a $61 million settlement, a $2.5+ million court-approved consumer class settlement against Starion Energy, and discrimination and retaliation litigation for the former in-house attorney of Zara USA, Inc. He has negotiated individual settlements of $7 million, $4.95 million, and $1 million in discrimination and retaliation matters and has litigated appeals in the Second, Fourth, and Eleventh Circuits and the New York State Appellate Division.

Carolin Guentert, Co-Managing Partner of the New York Office | Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP

Carolin Guentert is Co-Managing Partner of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight’s New York office and Co-Chair of the firm’s Sexual Violence, Title IX, and Victims’ Rights Practice Group. Her practice concentrates on discrimination and harassment litigation and Title IX and victims’ rights matters, representing both individuals and classes in employment cases across the legal, financial services, tech, and consumer goods industries.

• Education & Credentials

Carolin earned her LL.M., with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center, her J.D. from New York University School of Law, and her B.A., summa cum laude, from The College of New Jersey. She clerked for the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She was admitted to the New York bar in 2015 and the District of Columbia bar in 2017 and is admitted to the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Fourth Circuits and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Carolin has been selected to Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for Labor and Employment Law – Employee and Litigation – Labor and Employment in 2024, 2025, and 2026. New York Super Lawyers named her a Top-Rated Civil Rights attorney in 2026 and a Rising Star in 2023, 2024, and 2025. She appears on Benchmark Litigation’s 40 and Under list for 2023, 2024, and 2025 and Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Civil Rights and Plaintiff Employment Lawyers for 2025 and 2026, and she received the Profiles in Leadership Journal Emerging Leaders Award in 2025.

• Professional Involvement

Carolin has authored or co-authored articles appearing in the Cardozo Law Review, the Federal Sentencing Reporter, Law360, and the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics. She is a member of the Sanctuary for Families Pro Bono Council. Before joining the firm, she was a clinical teaching fellow in Georgetown University Law Center’s Domestic Violence Clinic, where she completed the Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program. She speaks native German and proficient French.

• Experience

Carolin has represented three graduate students in Title IX litigation against Harvard University over a near-decade-long pattern of sexual harassment, which settled in 2024, and litigated a proposed pregnancy discrimination class action against Morrison & Foerster LLP on behalf of female attorneys. Her matters include a proposed $100 million nationwide gender discrimination and sexual harassment class action against Schlumberger Technology Corporation, a proposed class action against Yale University and its allmale fraternities, race discrimination litigation for 18 former student pilots at the American Airlines Cadet Academy, and representations involving Colgate University, Teachers College at Columbia University, and a Southwest Airlines pilot alleging in-flight sexual harassment and retaliation.

SESSION 1 – Pleading Discrimination and Protected-Leave Claims Against Algorithmic Layoffs | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session teaches plaintiffs’ employment attorneys how to plead federal and state discrimination and protected-leave claims when an employer used AI or algorithmic scoring to select employees for layoff. Attorneys will learn how to identify and name the specific AI systems and data inputs at issue, adapt FMLA, ADA, PDA, PWFA, and Title VII disparate-impact frameworks to algorithmic fact patterns, and leverage state and local regulations— including NYC Local Law 144, California’s October 2025 AI regulations, and Colorado’s SB 24-205. Attendees will leave with a checklist for complaint drafting in algorithmic reduction-in-force cases and ideas for navigating the pre-complaint investigation process.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Proving the Algorithm Did It: Discovery, Experts, and Emergency Relief | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session covers the litigation mechanics of proving algorithmic discrimination in AI-driven layoffs, from targeted discovery of vendor data through expert witness strategy. Attorneys will learn how to identify and overcome privilege shields over AI bias-testing data, structure expert teams to survive Daubert scrutiny, and build the evidentiary record needed for class certification and trial.