Brant represents workers in class actions and individual matters involving wage-and-hour violations, discrimination, and retaliation, with a particular focus on systemic workplace abuses. His practice spans claims for unpaid wages and overtime, misclassification, tip and service charge violations, and discrimination based on disability and sexual orientation.
Before joining Fair Work, Brant was a senior associate at one of New England’s leading employee-side class action firms, where he litigated complex cases on behalf of workers across a range of industries. His work has included high-impact litigation involving the misclassification of exotic dancers and cleaning workers as independent contractors, unlawful tip pooling and service charge practices in the hospitality industry, and widespread failures to pay overtime.
Brant has played a key role in several groundbreaking cases addressing structural wage theft, particularly in the exotic dancing industry and low-wage service sectors. His advocacy has helped secure important rulings, including decisions holding that managerial shift supervisors may not participate in tip pools with baristas at a major international coffee chain, and that service employees in Hawaii are entitled to recover unpaid service charges withheld by hotel employers.
In addition to his class action practice, Brant has successfully resolved numerous individual cases involving discrimination and retaliation, securing meaningful relief for his clients.
Brant has litigated matters in state and federal courts across the country, as well as in private arbitration. He has authored briefs in appellate courts nationwide, including the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Hawaii Supreme Court, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, and Third Circuits. His work has contributed to the development of precedent advancing the rights of workers in multiple jurisdictions.
Education
Northeastern University School of Law
J.D. - 2008
Northeastern University
A.B. - 2003
Cunha v. Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC, 221 F. Supp. 3d 178 (D. Mass. 2016) (conditionally certifying FLSA collective action and authorizing notice to "damage managers")
Carpaneda v. Domino's Pizza, Inc., 89 F. Supp. 3d 219 (D. Mass. 2015) (awarding $41,000 in attorneys' fees after plaintiff accepted $19,500 offer from defendant)
Travers v. Flight Services & Systems, Inc., 737 F.3d 144 (1st Cir. 2013) (reversing federal trial court's decision dismissing skycap retaliation case)
Binienda v. Atwells Realty Corp., 2018 WL 6266784 (D.R.I. 2018) (approving $35,000 settlement — three times her estimated damages — for former adult entertainer)
Goldberg v. EF Education First, Inc., 34 Mass. L. Rptr. 399 (2017) (certifying class action of tour consultants on claim for unpaid overtime)
Sutton v. Jordan's Furniture, Inc., 493 Mass. 728 (2024) (affirming $8.8 million judgment for unpaid overtime and premium pay on behalf of commission-based salespeople)
Sutton v. Jordan's Furniture, Inc., Middlesex Case No. 1981CV01763 (Mass. Super. Dec. 21, 2020) (certifying class action of sales employees on claim for unpaid overtime and Sunday premium pay)
Reilly v. The Convertible Castle, Inc., d/b/a Bernie & Phyl's Furniture, Bristol Case No. 1973CV00449 (Dec. 24, 2020) (certifying class action of sales employees on claim for unpaid overtime and Sunday premium pay)
Weiss v. Loomis, Sayles & Co., Inc., 97 Mass. App. Ct. 1 (2020) (vacating directed verdict against plaintiff on claim that he was misclassified as an independent contractor)
Cairo v. Starbucks Corp., 2013 WL 5229968 (D. Mass. Sept. 13, 2013) (successfully opposing summary judgment on barista's claim failure to accommodate)
Oliveira v. Table Talk Pies, Inc., Middlesex Case No. 2085CV00518 (Mass. Super. July 6, 2023) (summary judgment for plaintiff's favor on claim that employer improperly rounded employees' start and stop times at work)
Litigating Wage and Hour Class Actions: Hybrid Actions
ABA Labor and Employment Law, 3rd Annual CLE Conference
Speaker on panel concerning independent contractor misclassification, Boston Bar Association, October, 2017 to 2017
Speaker concerning changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act, and other wage and hour developments, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, December, 2016 to 2016
Massachusetts
District of Massachusetts
United States Court of Appeals - First Circuit