Leslie Miller Greenspan is an experienced trial lawyer and litigator. A Partner at Tucker Law Group, Ms. Greenspan’s focus is primarily on employment discrimination cases, civil rights litigation, and complex commercial disputes. She practices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and is also barred in Florida and the District of Columbia. Ms. Greenspan has led trial teams in both state and federal court and has handled all aspects of litigation from the filing of the complaint through expert reports, dispositive motions, motions in limine, and jury verdicts.
In 2017, Ms. Greenspan led the TLG team to make new law in the Third Circuit by successfully arguing that an employer’s “honest belief” that an employee is abusing FMLA leave is sufficient to defeat an FMLA claim. The case also involved the interplay between the FMLA and the ADA. Ms. Greenspan briefed and argued the case before the District Court and won summary judgment. On appeal, and even despite the EEOC’s involvement and filing of an amicus brief, the Third Circuit – in a precedential decision – affirmed the entry of summary judgment and ruled in favor of the employer based on the “honest belief” defense. As of January 2025, this case, Capps v. Mondelez Global, LLC, 847 F.3d 144 (3d Cir. 2017), has been cited over 250 times.
Ms. Greenspan has also been called on to handle high-stakes litigation for corporate and educational clients. She routinely and successfully represents clients in connection with preliminary injunction hearings, both in the corporate and university settings. By way of example, Ms. Greenspan successfully obtained a preliminary injunction in favor of a global chemical company when a former employee with specialized and technical knowledge of the company’s proprietary information left to work for a competitor. In the university and Title IX context, Ms. Greenspan twice defeated a plaintiff’s attempt to obtain a temporary restraining order that would reinstate him as a student after being found responsible for violations of the university’s sexual misconduct policy. Ms. Greenspan has also successfully served as the Advocate for Misconduct Charges, acting on behalf of a university to revoke a professor’s tenure for neglect of duties and violation of university policy.
Prior to joining TLG, Ms. Greenspan spent more than a decade working at a large firm in Philadelphia, where she handled all aspects of litigation; served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office’s Associate Prosecutor Program, where she prosecuted and tried cases involving domestic violence and child abuse; and clerked for the Honorable Gary R. Jones, a federal magistrate judge in the Middle District of Florida. Ms. Greenspan has been selected as a “Rising Star” among Pennsylvania Super Lawyers from 2006 to 2018 and a “Super Lawyer” since 2020. She served as Chair of the Board for Women Against Abuse, an organization dedicated to providing life-saving services to survivors of domestic violence, and currently serves on that Board. She is also active with the Philadelphia Bar Association (Chair, Federal Courts Committee) and the Forum of Executive Women (Vice Chair, Mentoring Committee). Ms. Greenspan also teaches on the faculty of NITA, sharing her insights on and her enjoyment of trials with students from across the country.
Ms. Greenspan regularly speaks on topics related to her practice, including Title IX, the FMLA, religious accommodations, pregnancy discrimination, and deposition skills.
Ms. Greenspan attended Johns Hopkins University and Emory Law School.
Speaking Engagements
- “My First Federal Trial,” Philadelphia Bar Association (Sept. 2019)
- “Litigating The Employment Discrimination Case in Philadelphia,” PBI (Feb. 2019)
- “The #MeToo Movement’s Impact on Litigation, Counseling and Training,” Philadelphia Bar Association (Oct. 2018)
- “Section 1983 Litigation,” DRI’s Annual Personal Injury Practicum Seminar (Nov. 2017)
- Closing Arguments, Guest Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, 2015
