Deborah Karpatkin - Adjunct Professor of Law

Deborah Karpatkin has taught Employment Discrimination Law at Touro Law Center since 2018.  

A New York City-based solo practitioner, Ms. Karpatkin serves clients in a wide range of litigation and transactional workplace matters. Her diverse clients include individuals and small business owners; executives in transition and lower-wage workers; and professionals in health care, law, journalism, and faith-based organizations. Her clients work in corporations, small businesses, and non-profit organizations; the military and the government; technology and finance; and academia and the media. Her practice areas include transactional, administrative proceedings, mediation, arbitration, and trial and appellate work, on issues of discrimination, retaliation, breach of contract, and other workplace-related legal claims. 

Ms. Karpatkin is a trusted advisor to her colleagues and to nonprofit organizations. She is serves on the board of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), and from 2012-2020, on the board of its New York affiliate, NELA/NY.  She serves as co-General Counsel to the New York Civil Liberties Union (ACLU of New York.) A member of the NYC Bar Association, she serves currently on its Military and Military Affairs and Sex and Law Committees. 

A graduate of Columbia Law School, Ms. Karpatkin is regularly invited to teach in her areas of expertise. She presents at programs for employment rights lawyers on a range of practice issues; for military rights lawyers and counselors about conscientious objector law, and for seminary graduates about clergy contracts. She has published articles on Conscientious Objector law, discharge upgrades for military veterans, the male-only draft registration, and on the applicability of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, after the Hobby Lobby decision, to the rights of military conscientious objectors.