Leslie R. Bennett

Les Bennett is a seasoned litigator with more than three decades of experience in the private and public sectors. He began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Harry E. Kalodner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Thereafter, he entered the private sector as an associate at a prominent Wall Street firm, where he worked on a significant antitrust litigation and products liability cases for a major automaker. Mr. Bennett returned to the public sector, serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted and defended claims on behalf of the United States and its agencies. He then moved to Long Island, where he was, in turn, the Partner in Charge of the Environmental, Health and Regulatory Practice Group and the Partner in Charge of the Litigation Department at two highly regarded firms. While in those roles, his work activities included: principal responsibility on a wide variety of matters in defense of a major chemical company in the “Agent Orange” Litigation; coordination of programs for the management of asbestos-containing materials on a nationwide basis; drafting and revising local laws on infectious waste and underground storage tanks; implementing a program for the treatment and disposal of medical waste for the not-for-profit hospitals on Long Island; and defending well-known, publicly traded corporations and closely held private entities against claims of discrimination and sexual harassment. A substantial portion of his work has been devoted to environmental, toxic tort, employment, and commercial matters, and appellate advocacy. He has also worked on many other types of matters and issues, including Article 78, civil rights, computer, constitutional, intellectual property, land use, OSHA, premises liability, product liability, qui tam, real estate, and SEQRA. Mr. Bennett is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was an Articles & Book Review Editor for the Law Review. He has authored numerous articles and lectured extensively on environmental, employment and litigation issues.