Danny Rosenthal

Danny Rosenthal litigates on behalf of workers and their unions. He also advises unions and non-profit organizations on various matters.

Danny has often used cutting-edge legal theories to help clients achieve positive results. For instance, he led a team that relied on the public nuisance doctrine to obtain workplace protections from COVID-19, and he crafted a successful challenge to a regulation restricting overtime pay for federal government workers.

Danny joined James & Hoffman in 2011. He served as a law clerk for the Honorable William J. Kayatta, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and received his college degree in mathematics with honors from the University of Chicago. Between college and law school, he taught mathematics at a public high school in Houston, Texas.

In 2021, 2022, and 2023, Danny was named one of the 500 leading plaintiff employment and civil rights lawyers in the United States by LawDragon. He has been identified as a “Rising Star” by SuperLawyers for labor and employment law in Washington, DC, in each year since 2018.

Danny is a senior editor of the leading treatise on the Railway Labor Act. He is a member of the state bars of New York and the District of Columbia, and he is admitted to practice in trial courts and appellate courts around the country.

Danny lives in DC with his wife, Roxanna, and their son.

Representative matters:

• Briefed and argued successful appeals on behalf of unions. American Airlines Flow-Thru Pilots Coalition v. Allied Pilots Association (9th Cir. 2022) (affirmance of judgment for union in duty of fair representation class action), Krakowski v. Allied Pilots Association (2d. Cir 2021) (affirmance of judgments for union in two related duty of fair representation class actions), and Peterson v. Washington Teachers’ Union (D.C. 2018) (affirmance of dismissal of claim brought by former union officer).
• Represented Starbucks Workers United in successfully opposing a stay of a trial court order requiring reinstatement of seven terminated workers. McKinney v. Starbucks (6th Cir. 2022).
• Obtained more than $13 million in backpay for D.C. Public School teachers in arbitrations and related proceedings.
• Represented a whistleblower under the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute, leading to settlements after discovery of more than $20 million. United States ex rel. Dean v. Paramedics Plus (E.D. Tex. 2018).
• Serving as lead counsel for a nationwide class of Diagnostic Radiological Technologists at the VA allegedly denied overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Michalovic-Crawley v. United States (Ct. of Fed. Cl.).
• Led a team that secured a preliminary injunction requiring certain McDonald’s restaurants to improve their COVID-19 safety measures under the public nuisance doctrine. Massey v. McDonald’s (Ill. Cir. Ct. 2020).
• Successfully challenged a regulation restricting overtime pay for federal employees during training programs. Plaintiff No. 1 v. United States (Ct. of Fed. Cl. 2021) and Doe No. 1 v. United States (Ct. of Fed. Cl. 2022).