Connecticut, New York, District of Columbia

A graduate of Harvard and Yale and a five-time Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” for employment law and litigation, Josh Goodbaum represents Connecticut employees and other civil rights plaintiffs in litigation and negotiation.

Josh’s practice as an employee advocate spans the full range of workplace disputes, from discrimination (on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, marital status, pregnancy, military service, or national origin) and sexual harassment, to wrongful termination, retaliation, non-competition agreements and other restrictive covenants, contract disputes, and wage and hour issues, including claims for unpaid overtime and commissions. He has secured several seven-figure settlements in sexual harassment cases. He has counseled employees and executives in the negotiation of separation agreements of all sizes – from less than $25,000 to more than $25 million. He has represented employees in virtually every sector of the Connecticut economy: accounting, banking, construction, entertainment, finance, government, healthcare, higher education, hospitality, insurance, law, manufacturing, and technology. And he has partnered in litigation with leading civil rights organizations, including the AARP Foundation, GLAD Law (formerly GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders), and the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund.

Josh’s representation of employees has earned him preeminent status in the Connecticut legal community. He has been named the “Lawyer of the Year” for both “Employment Law – Individuals” (for the 2022 and 2026 editions) and “Litigation – Labor & Employment” (for the 2023, 2025, and 2027 editions) by The Best Lawyers in America, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession.

He has been recognized by Connecticut Super Lawyers since 2015, when the Connecticut Law Tribune also dubbed him a “New Leader of the Law.” Chambers USA rates him as “Band One” – its highest rating – in the category of “Litigation: Mainly Plaintiffs.” Martindale-Hubbell rates him at its highest level of professional excellence – AV Preeminent – based on ratings from his fellow lawyers and judges. And since 2019, Lawdragon has included him in its annual list of the Nation’s 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers. (None of these recognitions can be purchased.)

Josh is the current President of the Board of Directors of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association. His New Haven-area peers twice elected him to serve in the Connecticut Bar Association House of Delegates, the Bar Association’s governing body. Josh served as Chair of the CBA’s Labor & Employment Law Section and Co-Chair of its Federal Practice Section, which includes many of Connecticut’s most prominent litigators, as well as on the CBA’s Awards and Nominations Committees. He was an invited member of the Editorial Board of the Connecticut Law Tribune and the Advisory Board of the New York University Center for Labor and Employment Law. He is a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. He teaches Trial Practice at Yale Law School. And he is an elected member of the Board of Governors and Chair of the Employment Law Committee of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA), which seeks to preserve individual rights within the justice system and protect the rights of plaintiffs – including employees – who are injured through no fault of their own.

Josh earned his law degree from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. During law school, Josh served as Supervising Editor of the Harvard Law Review and Co-Chair of the Public Interest Auction. And after law school, he clerked for then-Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, who is now an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Josh went to college at Yale University, graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a degree in history. Between college and law school, he worked for an industrial supply distribution company in Chicago.