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, New Jersey, and Florida and is also barred in 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 November 2019, this case, Capps v. Mondelez Global, LLC, 847 F.3d 144 (3d Cir. 2017), has been cited over 100 times.
Ms. Greenspan has also been called on to handle high-stakes litigation for corporate and educational clients. By way of example, in 2018, 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 recently defeated a plaintiff’s attempt to obtain a temporary restraining order that would reinstate him as a student after being found responsible for two violations of the university’s sexual misconduct policy. In addition to denying the temporary restraining order, the District Court granted the university’s motion to dismiss the Title IX and state law claims.
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 since 2006 and serves as Chair of the Board for Women Against Abuse, an organization dedicated to providing life-saving services to survivors of domestic violence. She also teaches on the faculty of NITA, sharing her insights on and her enjoyment of trials with students from across the country.
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