Photo of Elise M. Bloom

Elise M. Bloom is widely hailed as one of the nation’s top employment lawyers and one of the most creative and effective discrimination wage and hour, class/collective action trial lawyers. She is particularly well-known for handling high profile, bet-the-company matters on behalf of significant national employers.

Elise is the former co-chair of Proskauer’s Labor & Employment Department, co-head of the Class & Collective Actions Group and previously served as a member of Proskauer’s elected Executive Committee for two terms.

With 30+ years in practice, Elise possesses extensive pre-trial and jury trial experience as well as conducting high-profile investigations. She has represented more companies in class actions challenging interns, trainees and volunteers than most others; this includes her precedent-setting win for Fox Searchlight Pictures in the “Black Swan” case. She also addresses a wider range of general employment issues through counseling and employer training programs.

A noted author and speaker on employment-related topics, Elise spearheads Proskauer’s annual Value Insights: Delivering Value in Labor and Employment Law survey. Elise has been recognized as one of the leading employment lawyers by several leading publications such as Chambers USA, Legal 500, New York Law Journal and Employment Law360, to name a few. She was recently recognized as “Labor & Employment Management Attorney of the Year” at Benchmark Litigation’s 2020 US Awards EAST. She has also been named "Best in Labor & Employment" at Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Awards Americas in 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2014. A client recently told Chambers USA, “She's incredible. She has an intensity about her work and she knows how corporations work. To watch her in litigation is magic."

On April 23, 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order (“EO”) entitled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” which aims to “eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible.” 

First recognized under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) by the U.S. Supreme Court

On September 17, 2019, Labor & Employment partner and member of the Proskauer Executive Committee Elise Bloom moderated “The New Workplace” panel at the Benchmark Women in Litigation NYC Forum where Proskauer was a sponsor. The forum boasts panels of women lawyers discussing the top legal issues facing in-house counsel. On the panel with Elise

In a 5-4 decision in Home Depot U.S.A. Inc., v. Jackson, 587 U.S. __ (2019), the United States Supreme Court held that a third-party counterclaim defendant does not qualify as a “defendant” under the general removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a) or under the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (“CAFA”) and therefore cannot

In a 5-4 decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts on April 24, 2019, the United States Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) precludes a court from compelling class arbitration when an agreement is ambiguous on the availability of such arbitration. Lamps Plus Inc. et al. v. Varela, No. 17-988, 587 U.S.