Steven Eckhaus

Steven co-heads the Employment and Executive Compensation practices at Harris St. Laurent LLP. He is widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading attorneys in the areas of executive compensation, employment law, and high-stakes dispute resolution.

Steven is regularly called upon to advise decision makers on complex matters involving employment, compensation, and equity interests. His insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other notable publications, reflecting his standing as a trusted voice on cutting-edge issues.

Steven has been recognized in Chambers USA, New York Super Lawyers, Legal 500 US Corporate Employment Lawyers and U.S. News-Best Lawyers over consecutive years. He has received the rare distinction of a second Hall of Fame recognition for his work in corporate employment law. Additionally, he was named a Lateral All-Star by The American Lawyer in 2017.

Before joining Harris St. Laurent, Steven led the executive compensation practices at Katten Muchin Rosenman and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Earlier in his career, he founded a successful boutique firm. These experiences inform his commitment to providing highly personalized, strategic counsel within an accessible practice setting.

Steven’s work spans both precedent setting litigation and high-level advisory matters. He has played a key role in shaping modern employment law.

His client base includes CEOs, founders, partners, fund managers, technologists, investment bankers, and family office principals. Clients turn to him for sophisticated counsel on employment agreements, bonus and equity structures, carried interest arrangements, joint ventures, succession planning, and separation and retirement agreements. Steven also represents clients in disputes involving clawbacks, restrictive covenants, confidentiality, intellectual property, and derivative claims, through litigation, arbitration, and mediation.

Notable Matters

Notable matters include:

• In FINRA arbitration, represented Paul Galietto, Credit Suisse former head of equities in his successful defense of Credit Suisse attempted to claw back $825,000 and awarding Mr. Galietto $8.7 million (February 24, 2026).
• Expanded Title VII protections to include discrimination based on motherhood in (Matter Trezza, No. 98 Civ. 2205, 1998) WL 912101 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 30, 1998), which informed the jurisprudential basis for the emerging doctrine of Family Responsibility Discrimination.
• Expanded the right for American employees of foreign companies to sue their employers in U.S. courts in Morelli v. Cedel, 141 F.3d 39 (2d Cir. 1998).
• Represented more than 100 executives from Merrill Lynch in employment-related negotiations from 1998-2008.
  Advised and negotiated the employment and compensation terms of the general counsel and chief legal officers of several financial institutions.
• In a restrictive covenants dispute, obtained a settlement that allowed a high-profile brokerage chief of a notable multinational bank to work as the CEO of one of the bank’s competitors.
• Advised the compensation committee of the Big Ten college sports conference for nearly seven years.
• Served as counsel for prominent New York-based hotelier, Leona Helmsley, and obtained the vacatur of a $10 million punitive damages reward.
• Negotiated the employment and compensation terms for the CEO of a $19 billion IBM spin-out.