Gregory Calliste, Jr. is a Partner and employment discrimination attorney at Phillips & Associates. He possesses 17 years of experience handling criminal law and civil law matters, including employment law cases, at the federal, state and administrative levels. In addition to litigation it the trial courts, Mr. Calliste’s experience also includes appellate work in the New York State and federal courts.
Mr. Calliste graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Business Systems & Management from the State University of New York at Old Westbury in 1998. Following college, he worked at JP Morgan Chase. He received his J.D. from New York Law School in 2003. During law school, he was an associate at a NYC law firm, moving among multiple practice areas, including torts, personal injury and civil rights. Mr. Calliste also volunteered support (including help with estate and probate matters and obtaining federal assistance) to victims of the World Trade Center attack.
From 2004-2016, Mr. Calliste served as senior associate, managing a large caseload for a New York firm, wherein he litigated mostly complex civil rights cases against municipalities, private companies and individuals. Among other things, he successfully represented labor unions and union members in collective bargaining and employment-related matters. Mr. Calliste represented both Plaintiff and Defendants, including corporate and not-for-profit clients, in employment related matters. In 2010, he received the Public Interest Attorney of the Year award from the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center at Touro College.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Calliste has been involved in at least 100 trials and hearings, which includes proceedings in employment discrimination, police misconduct, municipal liability, personal injury / torts, criminal defense, family law and civil rights cases in various areas. Successful verdicts/settlements, which Mr. Calliste helped to obtain for his clients, include:
$570,000 recovered at trial after an African-American woman sued a retail store for false arrest and discrimination in place of public accommodation.
$1.277 million verdict for a racially motivated attack and serious injuries caused by violent acts against his clients, who were lured to an isolated warehouse.
$7.7 million in wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit brought by a family of the victim.
$4.7 million verdict in a lawsuit involving repeated racially motivated and discriminatory verbal assaults and a physical assault on a Yemeni-American employee by an African-American coworker. In that case, the supervisor failed to protect the employee and discipline the assailant.
$298,000 — False arrest, malicious prosecution, excessive force and other Civil Rights violations.
$975,000 — Action by African-American Employee in Suffolk County for discrimination in the workplace
