MEMBERS: Sanford R. Oxfeld | Arnold Shep Cohen | Nancy Iris Oxfeld | Denzil R. Dunkley | Gail Oxfeld Kanef

ASSOCIATES: Benjamin Spivack | Randi Doner April | Jennifer Gottschalk

Sanford R. Oxfeld (E-mail: sro@oxfeldcohen.com) graduated from law school in 1973 and clerked in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division for one year. He has concentrated during his career almost entirely in the areas of Labor and Employment Law, having litigated some of the most significant labor and employment law cases in both the public and private sectors before the New Jersey Supreme Court. (See, e.g. Maher v. N.J. Transit, NJ Supreme Court; State v. Local 195. NJ Supreme Court and In Re Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education, NJ Supreme Court)

Mr. Oxfeld teaches Employment Discrimination Law at Rutgers Law School, having taught at both Essex County College and Seton Hall University previously. He has been recognized as one of America's leading Employment lawyers by Chambers, USA and is the author of the Labor Law chapter of Matthew Bender's Deposition Strategy, Law and Forms.

Channel 12, the New Jersey Network, has featured Mr. Oxfeld as a legal consultant on labor law issues. Mr. Oxfeld appears not only in court but before Administrative Agencies on a regular basis, and because of his extensive appellate experience has frequently handled appeals for large groups on substantial issues such as interpreting New Jersey's pension statutes and arguing that equitable considerations, should apply to administrative agencies.

Mr. Oxfeld has won over $1 million in back pay awards in a single calendar year and has highest profile cases usually involve public employee strikes (which are illegal in New Jersey). He is therefore considered an expert in the areas of injunctions and actions to enforce litigant's rights.

 

Arnold Shep Cohen (E-mail: asc@oxfeldcohen.com) concentrates his practice in private and public sector labor, employment, and employee benefits law. Mr. Cohen is the Chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section, New Jersey State Bar Association. He has been practicing law for 30 years, has six reported decisions with the New Jersey Supreme Court, has numerous reported decisions in State and Federal trial and appellate courts, as well as numerous decisions from administrative agencies, such as the Public Employment Relations Commission, the New Jersey Department of Personnel, the National Labor Relations Board, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Mr. Cohen is an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers School of Law - Newark, where he teaches Labor Arbitration Seminar, Labor Negotiations Seminar and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of the New Jersey Labor and Employment Law Quarterly, NJSBA and was a member of the Editorial Board of "New Jersey Lawyer, The Weekly Newspaper". He is a founding Master of Sidney Reitman Employment Law Inn of Court. Mr. Cohen is listed in "The Best Lawyers in America" (Woodward/White), "Who's Who in American Law" (Marquis), and "New Jersey Magazine" as one of New Jersey's top lawyers. Mr. Cohen is an editor and co-author of "New Jersey Labor and Employment Law" NJSBA. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Labor Museum. He is the host of "The World of Work" radio show on WDVR-FM. He holds a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law - Newark and an LL.M. in Labor Law from New York University.

 

Nancy Iris Oxfeld (E-mail: nioesq@aol.com) concentrates her practice in the representation of unions, employees and benefit funds. Among her many published decisions are victories establishing the right of public employees to refrain from participation in the political process, the right of reinstated civil service employees to credit for sick and vacation days during the period of unlawful termination, the right of employess with arbitration rights to pursue whistleblowing claims in court, and the free speech rights of public employees. She is also experienced in practicing education law.

Ms. Oxfeld is currently a member of the executive committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association. She has served in the past as vice-chair of the Women's Rights Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association, vice-president of the Essex County Women Lawyers Association and as a Bencher for the first two sessions of the Sidney Reitman Employment Law Inn of Court. She has served as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School and made presentations on employment and labor law issues to the Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the New Jersey Trial Lawyers Association, the American Arbitration Association and the New Jersey Education Association as well as other professional groups and unions.

Ms. Oxfeld received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and her law degree from New York University .

 

Denzil R. Dunkley (E-mail: drdesq@oxfeldcohen.com) is in charge of the firm's workers' compensation practice section. He is a 1989 graduate of the Rutgers University School of Law - Camden and is admitted to practice in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Mr. Dunkley is a member of the American Bar Association and the New Jersey State Bar Association where he is a member of the workers' compensation executive committee. He has also served a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court's District Ethics Committee.

In addition to workers' compensation Mr. Dunkley also practices in the area of Social Security Disability. Before concentrating his practice on workers' compensation and social security matters, Mr. Dunkley was associated with an insurance defense firm handling automobile negligence and workers' compensation cases. 

 

Gail Oxfeld Kanef (E-mail: gok@oxfeldcohen.com) concentrates her practice almost exclusively in labor and employment law. She represents unions in both the public and private sector, individuals in public sector disciplinary actions, employees in education law matters and plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases. Ms. Kanef has experience with Appellate matters and matters before the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Ms. Kanef is a member of the Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association Section on Labor and Employment Law and that Section's Committee on NLRB Practice and Procedure and the NLRB Region 22 Conference Planning Committee. She is also a member of the American Bar Association Section on Labor and Employment Law. A Bencher of the Sidney Reitman Employment Law Inn of Court and a member of the Inn's Program Committee, Ms. Kanef has received the David Solomon Award for outstanding contributions to the Reitman Inn of Court. Ms. Kanef has been a speaker at the annual Public Employment Relations Commission Conference, the annual NLRB Conference, ICLE sponsored conferences on Labor and Employment Law topics and New Jersey State Bar Foundation Functions. Ms. Kanef has served as a judge in the New Jersey State Bar Foundation High School Mock Trial Competition.

She received her B.A. cum laude from Brandeis University and her J.D. cum laude from Boston University School of Law. Ms. Kanef served as a law clerk to the Honorable John A D'Amico J.S.C Superior Court, Monmouth County. 

 

Benjamin Spivack (E-mail: bspivack@oxfeldcohen.com) joined Oxfeld Cohen in June 2005. He graduated from Seton Hall Law School in May 2002, after working as a Union Representative for seventeen years and as an in-house attorney for Communication Workers of America Local 1040 for approximately three years. He has represented thousands of workers in grievance and disciplinary hearings handling, in addition, pension, discrimination, and federal Family Leave matters. Mr. Spivack has signifcant experience in civil service employee cases.

 

Randi Doner April (E-mail: rapril@oxfeldcohen.com) has nine year's experience in labor and employment law. She represents unions in both the public and private sector as well as representing individuals in disciplinary actions, education matters and discrimination cases.
Ms. April received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her J.D. cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

 

Jennifer Gottschalk (E-mail: JGottschalk@oxfeldcohen.com) After graduating from Rutgers-Camden School of Law in 1979, Ms. Gottschalk clerked for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Amel Stark (1979-80), then became an Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor (1980-82). After working briefly in private practice, Ms. Gottschalk returned to public service for the next 25 years, first, as an assistant counsel to the Casino Control Commission, then, as a Deputy Attorney General with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, where she investigated, prosecuted and tried white collar securities, organized crime, and health care cases. Ms. Gottschalk oversaw the operation of the State Grand Jury for 10 years. Ms. Gottschalk chaired the Attorney General's Human Trafficking Task Force and supervised investigations of human trafficking for the Attorney General. She handled matters and argued criminal cases before New Jersey appellate courts (Superior Court Appellate Division and Supreme Court of New Jersey) and the federal District Court of New Jersey and Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Gottschalk was a certified instructor for the New Jersey Police Training Commission. She has also coached and acted as a judge in the New Jersey High School Mock Trial program since 1994. She was on the adjunct faculty at Seton Hall University School of Law. Ms. Gottschalk is admitted to practice law before the bars of New Jersey, Maryland, the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.