Sally Abrahamson

PARTNER

Tel: 202-830-2016
Fax: 312-419-1025
Email: sabrahamson@flsalaw.com

LinkedIn

  • American University, Washington College of Law, J.D., with honors, 2009
  • Oberlin College, B.A., 2003

Admitted to Practice

  • State of Texas, 2009 (inactive)
  • District of Columbia, 2011
  • State of New York, 2013

United States Federal District Courts

  • District of Columbia, 2011
  • District of Maryland, 2018
  • Southern District of New York, 2014
  • Eastern District of New York, 2015
  • Western District of New York, 2017
  • Southern District of Texas, 2018

United States Courts of Appeals

  • Second Circuit of Appeals, 2015

2024

  • Speaker: Advanced Class & Collective Action Practice, NELA Annual Convention

2023

  • Speaker: Recent Developments Under the Federal Arbitration Act, ABA Webinar
  • Speaker: MWELA ESI Brownbag
  • Speaker: Wage and Hour Law in the Era of the Wandering Workforce and Great Reshuffle, ABA LEL

2022

  • Moderator: Recent Developments Under the Federal Arbitration Act, ABA LEL.
  • Speaker: “Advancing LGBTQ+ Rights in the Workplace: A Look at Current Protections and a Conversation Regarding the Path Ahead,” ABA Webinar

2021

  • Speaker: “Supreme and Circuit Court Update,” ABA ADR In Labor and Employment Law Committee Midwinter Meeting
  • Speaker: “The COVID-19 Impact on WARN and Wage and Hour Law,” ABA LEL, Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee Midwinter Meeting
  • Speaker: “Getting Ethically to Yes,” ABA Section of Litigation Annual Conference
  • Speaker: “Modern Timekeeping Technology and Its Impact on the De Minimis Doctrine,” ABA National Symposium on Technology in Labor and Employment Law
  • Speaker: “State of the Union on LGBT Rights,” Texas Bar, Bill of Rights: Litigating the Constitution
  • Speaker: “Bringing NYC Fair Workweek Actions for Fast Food or Retail Workers,” National Employment Lawyers Association/New York

2020

  • Speaker: “Post-Epic Systems: Insights into Mass Individual Arbitrations,” CPR Employment Disputes Committee, Webinar
  • Speaker: “Arbitrating Individual FLSA Claims Under Compulsion,” ABA LEL, Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee Midwinter Meeting, Los Cabos, Mexico
  • Panelist: “Making Lemonade out of Lemons: How to Make Arbitration Work for You,” Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, 2020 Annual Conference, Washington, DC

2019

  • Speaker: “Workplace Issues & Legal Developments for LGBT+ Employees,” Shine PWC

2018

  • Speaker: “Navigating Individual Cases Post-Decertification or in Arbitration,” American Association for Justice Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado
  • Speaker: “Devising Innovative Strategies for Arbitrating Wage & Hour Cases and Understanding the Implications of the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Class Action Waivers,” American Conference Institute, Wage & Hour Claims & Class Actions, New York, NY
  • Panelist: “Workplace Issues Arising from LGBTQ Employees,” Arbitration, Justice, and the Individual in the Workplace: Keeping the Human Element in View conference, A joint program of the American Arbitration Association, Cornell ILR’s Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, and New York Law School, New York, NY

2017

  • Panelist: “Plaintiff as Producing Party: Best practices for handling annoying and sometimes abusive discovery requests,” The New York City Fall Conference on Representing Employees, New York, NY
  • Panelist: “Workplace Issues and Legal Developments Impacting LGBTQ Employees,” South Asian Bar Association of North America Annual Conference, Washington, DC

2016

  • Speaker: “Hybrid FLSA/NYLL Class Actions,” Low-Wage Worker Task Force, April CLE, New York, NY
  • Panelist: “LGBT Discrimination Panel, OUTLaw,” Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York, NY

2015

  • Chair: “Employment Law Post – Obergefell,” New York City Bar Association, CLE program, New York, NY
  • Panelist: “LGBT Rights Law Panel,” Columbia University, Columbia Undergraduate Law Review, New York, NY
  • Super Lawyers Super Lawyer: 2020-2021, 2023-2024
  • Super Lawyers Rising Star: 2016-2019
  • Legal 500 United States Recommended Labor and Employment Lawyer 2019-2020
  • Finalist for Public Justice’s Trial Lawyer of the Year Award (2018)
  • Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, Public Justice, Gonzalez v. Pritzker, 2017
  • National LGBT Bar Association Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 – Class of 2017
  • Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyers: 2021-2024
  • 2025 Best Lawyers – Employment Law – Individuals

Sally J. Abrahamson lives and breathes employment law, and zealously advocates for all her clients.

Sally joined Werman Salas as a partner in 2020 and is based in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Washington, D.C., New York and Texas (inactive) bars. Throughout her career, Sally has recovered over $100 million dollars for workers and has litigated and settled cutting edge cases. Sally is nationally recognized as an aggressive litigator, who can also work effectively with the other side when a deal can be made.

Notably, Sally has litigated some of the biggest cases in the country against national chain restaurants and recovered tens of millions of dollars for tipped workers. She litigates a wide-range of wage-and-hour cases on behalf of service employees, technicians, and sales employees (among others). Sally also litigates disparate impact discrimination cases, including Cote v. Walmart, which resulted in a $7.5 million class action settlement on behalf of Walmart associates who were unable to obtain health insurance coverage for their same-sex spouses from Walmart. In 2017, Sally won Public Justice’s prestigious Trial Lawyer of the Year Award as part of the litigation team in a class action against the Census Bureau. The case challenged the use of arrest and criminal history records as a screen for employment for 850,000 applicants and in 2016, the parties reached a landmark settlement that required the Census Bureau to reform its hiring practices for the 2020 decennial census.

Prior to joining the firm, Sally was a partner at Outten & Golden LLP, a plaintiff-side employment firm with a national presence. Sally also previously worked as a staff attorney at the D.C. Employment Justice Center, where she won two bench trials. She clerked for the Honorable Frank Montalvo, U.S. District Judge in the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division. In addition to serving as Judge Montalvo’s law clerk, Sally drafted speeches and papers in Spanish on topics ranging from arbitration to due process in support of Judge Montalvo’s position on the Committee on International Judicial Relations.

Sally is a member of Employment Law 360’s Employment Authority Wage & Hour Editorial Board. Sally also speaks frequently about issues facing LGBTQ employees and low-wage workers. She has won several awards and received national recognition for her litigation skills, including:

  • Super Lawyers Super Lawyer: 2020-2021, 2023
  • Super Lawyers Rising Star: 2016-2019
  • Legal 500 United States Recommended Labor and Employment Lawyer 2019-2020
  • Finalist for Public Justice’s Trial Lawyer of the Year Award 2018
  • Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, Public Justice, Gonzalez v. Pritzker 2017
  • National LGBT Bar Association Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 – Class of 2017

Sally is also active in a number bar and professional organizations including:

  • The American Bar Association, where she currently serves as a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Track Co-Chair and LGBTQ+ Affinity Group Co-Chair
  • The American Bar Association, where she is a member of the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
  • National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
  • The First Shift Justice Project, where she serves as a Board Member

Sally received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her J.D., with honors, from American University’s Washington College of Law where she received the Dean’s Award for Professional Responsibility – Outstanding Student in the Clinical Program for her work with the Domestic Violence Clinic.