Robert is a founding partner of Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP (“VKV”) and he practices in the areas of employment discrimination, False Claims Act litigation and Wage and Hour litigation.  He has handled hundreds of cases for thousands of clients over his twenty-seven (27) years as a litigator.  Since 2005, Robert has primarily represented employees in individual, class, collective and mass actions. He has litigated all forms of cases from single plaintiff discrimination cases to mass and class wage and hour actions involving thousands of plaintiffs. He has been lead and co-lead counsel to thousands of employees in numerous confidential ADR processes involving various Fortune Five Hundred companies. Through either trial or settlement, Robert and his partners have recovered over $100 million in verdicts/settlements for their clients.

Robert graduated from St. John’s University in 1987 and St. John’s University School of Law in 1990. Following his graduation from law school in 1990, he served as an Assistant District Attorney (“ADA”) with the Office of the Queens County District Attorney.  During his tenure as an ADA, he served in the Intake Bureau, Criminal Court Bureau, Appeals Bureau, Homicide Investigations Bureau and the Supreme Court Trial Bureau. In the approximately seven (7) years working as an ADA, he conducted hundreds of evidentiary hearings, investigated numerous homicides, tried  misdemeanor cases, prosecuted hundreds of felonies and tried more than twenty (20) felony cases to verdict.  He represented the Office of the District Attorney on more than twenty (20) appeals at the Appellate Division, Second Department, and was co-lead counsel representing the Queens District Attorney’s Office in the investigation, prosecution and eventual homicide conviction of an FBI profiled sexually sadistic serial killer.  In 1997, he began practicing in the fields of civil rights/employment discrimination and wage and hour.

Presently, he is involved in the majority of the litigation at VKV.  Below are examples of the cases where Mr. Valli represented the prevailing party in cases in which he served as lead or co-lead trial counsel.

1. Collins v. Suffolk County Police Department, et al., 01-CV-4194 (ADS)(E.D.N.Y.).
2. D’Annunzio v. Ayhan, et al. 11-cv-3303 (WFK)(E.D.N.Y.)
3. Gunning v. Village of East Rockaway, et al., 96-CV-2076 (ADS)(E.D.N.Y.)
4. Jattan v. Queens College, (12367/95) (Queens Supreme Court)
5. Raghavendra v. The Robert Plan Corporation, et al., 96 CV 667 (VPP)(E.D.N.Y.)
6. Sommer, et al. v. Aronow, et al., 95-CV-9230 (BSJ)(S.D.N.Y.)^[1]
7. Weeks v. Suffolk County Police Department, et al., 03-CV-4294 (LDW)(E.D.N.Y.)

In addition to the above, he has been lead counsel on many other arbitrations, binding mediations, labor hearings and civil trials and that did not proceed to verdict or decision.

Robert has successfully represented clients against numerous well-known companies and municipalities including ABC, Allied Aviation, Allstate, Amazon, Bank of New York, Bear Stearns, Cablevision, CBS, Chase Bank, Citibank, DaVita, the Fire Department of the City of New York, FOX, HBO, IHOP, JP Morgan, Lions Gate, Medicis, NBC, New York City, New York State, New York City Police Department, Nassau County, Nextel, Panda Express, Rite Aid, Showtime, SONY, Suffolk County, TJX Companies, Turner Industries, United Parcel Service, the United State Postal Service and Warner Brothers.

In Qui Tam/Whistleblower litigations Robert and his partner Sara have worked with the Federal Government and various State Attorney Generals to recover tens of millions of dollars of false claims under the False Claims Act and similar State Statutes.

Robert has appeared as a guest speaker on News Channel 12, as a legal commentator on Court TV and has lectured on criminal, civil rights and discrimination laws for a variety of organizations, including the Federal Bar Association.  He received the 2017 Long Island Business Leadership Award for Employment Attorneys.

[1] This trial involved contract claims and therefore there was no “prevailing party” as that term is used in the context of an FLSA/NYLL action.