About

JULIE KOWITZ MARGOLIES is an experienced mediator specializing in employment, civil rights, and commercial disputes. With 30 years’ experience in litigation, policy negotiation, and conflict resolution, she skillfully combines her legal acumen with insight and empathy to ensure that each stakeholder’s underlying interests are surfaced and understood. By facilitating a structured and focused process, Ms. Kowitz Margolies enables parties to gain clarity on what is most important to them, so they can fully explore next steps, develop a mutually beneficial resolution of conflict, and forge a positive path forward. She is known for her careful legal analysis, quickly establishing rapport with parties and counsel, and bringing tenacity and creativity to resolving disputes. Since becoming a full-time neutral, she has mediated hundreds of disputes involving small to large businesses representing a wide range of industries.

Prior to becoming a full-time neutral, Ms. Kowitz Margolies served as the Director of the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York, developing comprehensive advocacy campaigns in which she drafted proposed legislation, negotiated with legislators and executive agencies, and coordinated a statewide alliance of 125 organizations. Prior to leading the Women in Prison Project, Ms. Kowitz Margolies was a litigator at Beldock Levine & Hoffman, LLP, representing clients in employment discrimination, First Amendment, and commercial matters in state and federal courts. From 1997 to 1998, she was a Fellowship Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Law & Policy. From 1996 to 1997, Ms. Kowitz Margolies was a law clerk to the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She graduated second in her class and summa cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 1996. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Columbia University.

Ms. Kowitz Margolies currently serves as a neutral on the mediation panels of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, as well as New York State Court panels, and has served as a volunteer mediator at the New York Peace Institute. She has also served as a coach for Basic Mediation Training at the New York City Bar Association. From 2000 to 2008, she was an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School.  From 2003 to 2018, and from 2020 to the present, she has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union, serving as Vice President from 2010 to 2014 and from 2021 to the present.

Representative Matters

Employment

Ms. Kowitz Margolies has mediated hundreds of disputes, and has extensive experience mediating city, state and federal claims of wrongful termination, severance benefits, failure to promote, harassment, discrimination (age, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, pregnancy, religion), co-worker clashes, hostile work environment and retaliation, across a wide range of industries, including:

• Mediated age discrimination claim brought by real estate executive against one of the largest residential brokerages in the United States.
• Mediated federal and state disability discrimination and retaliation claims brought by an employee with epilepsy against a collective management organization (CMO).
• Mediated race and gender discrimination and retaliation claims brought by senior executive against international brewing company.
• Mediated hostile work environment, sexual assault and retaliation claims brought by restaurant server against her manager and her employer, a national restaurant chain.
• Mediated claim of retaliation and wrongful termination for reporting wage violations under federal and state wage laws brought by manager of multiple high-end restaurants.
• Mediated claims of pregnancy discrimination and retaliation brought by surgical technician against outpatient surgery center.  
• Mediated “reverse racism” discrimination claim brought by a youth services worker against a religious institution.
• Mediated claims of discrimination based on age, ethnicity and race brought against an international boutique hotel group.
• Mediated claims of age and national origin discrimination against a global market research firm.
• Mediated disability discrimination claim against a global document management and outsourcing service company.
• Mediated claims of gender, sexual orientation and race discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation brought against a franchisee of national restaurant chain.
• Mediated claims of wage discrimination and failure to promote based on race brought by multiple employees against a large laundry equipment service corporation.

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Other Civil Rights Claims

State and federal claims for false arrest, false imprisonment, unlawful search and seizure, excessive force, assault, and malicious prosecution, including matters involving multiple plaintiffs.

Personal Injury/Torts

Personal injury and tort claims, including claims of non-consensual dissemination of explicit images, New York State Adult Survivor Act claims, claims arising from on-the-job work-related injuries and motor vehicle crashes.

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