Am Law Daily Article Highlights Kirschenbaum's Achievements

This December 16th article from The Am Law Daily highlights the profound influence 31-year-old attorney D. Maimon Kirschenbaum has had on the New York City restaurant industry. Kirschenbaum, who is only five years out of law school, has already became a name partner at Joseph, Herzfeld, Hester & Kirschenbaum and has earned special attention for his work suing high profile restaurants for wage and hour violations and inappropriate tip sharing. Caroline Richmond, a partner at Fox Rothschild, who has gone up against Kirschenbaum in 10 relevant cases, expressed her awe at his meteoric assent: "I have not seen anybody rise as quickly as Kirschenbaum as far as building a practice and a name for himself."

Kirschenbaum's targets have included Mario Batali, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Drew Nieporent, Keith McNally, and Masaharu Morimoto. The Kirschenbaum-led suits against large restaurants for bad practices have led to a polarized, spirited debate among foodies and New York City restaurant critics. Tim and Nina Zagat, authors of the renowned eponymous restaurant guide, wrote a New York Times Op-Ed piece last Tuesday attacking the "scourge plaguing the city's finer eateries… A bevy of class action lawsuits in which restaurant servers claim they are being shortchanged in various ways by management."

Despite the backlash from critics, Kirschenbaum has held his own - even against big firms like Fox Rothschild, Littler Mendelson, and Proskauer Rose. His philosophical approach is simple: "For the most part, the restaurants don't work on the same budget as Citibank, and they are not really interested in hiring 300 lawyers to work on a case… basically if there were cases against restaurants for withholding of tips, we brought them as long as the claims were good."