No. 5: Nancy Erika Smith

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In the #MeToo era, few keep employers in line as well as Smith. She’s spent the last 30-plus years fighting and winning employment law cases, and she’s also known around the country as a source on high-profile sexual harassment and assault cases, appearing on CNN, NBC, and CBS, with her expertise quoted in the Washington Post and Forbes.

Smith’s most recent case involved a former PNC Bank wealth manager who won $2.4 million in compensatory damages after a jury determined that PNC failed to protect her from a customer well known to managers as a serial harasser of women, particularly African-American women.

Some other recent high-profile cases have included Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment case against Fox News and Roger Ailes, which settled for $20 million and Meredith Watson, who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault.

The co-founder of Montclair’s Smith Mullin perennially appears on best-lawyer lists thanks to a history of significant victories over the course of a nearly 40-year career. Smith has won important cases involving NJ Transit, the Essex County Sheriff’s office, WWOR-TV, Prudential Insurance Co., Rutgers University, and IBM Corp. She also speaks widely on employment law issues and lectured at Oxford University.