Bernabei & Kabat is pleased to announce Attorney Kristen Sinisi as its newest partner, effective May 20, 2019. As a partner, Ms. Sinisi will continue to advocate for employee rights: helping employees in the areas of harassment, discrimination, whistleblower situations and other challenges
Kristen Sinisi represents employees in employment litigation, including statutory discrimination and retaliation claims, and common-law claims arising in the workplace setting. Ms. Sinisi has pursued a variety of employment-related claims, including claims for discrimination, retaliation, breach of contract, and whistleblower claims arising under the Sarbanes Oxley Act, Dodd-Frank Act, False Claims Act, and Defense Contractor Whistleblower Protection Act. Ms. Sinisi also has experience challenging employers’ restrictive covenants, including non-compete provisions.
Ms. Sinisi has been selected to the 2019 Washington, D.C. Rising Stars list for the second year. No more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in Washington, D.C. are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.
Prior to joining Bernabei & Kabat, Ms. Sinisi served as the Chief Law Clerk to the Honorable Dan Pellegrini at the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, where she analyzed a variety of employment issues in the appellate context, including tenure denials, breach of contract claims, professional licensure suspensions and revocations, labor-union/management disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements, unemployment compensation denials, and numerous civil rights matters.
Before clerking, Ms. Sinisi played a key role in obtaining a seminal ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit regarding the pleading standard applicable to whistleblower complaints filed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. In the same case, Ms. Sinisi successfully argued before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that SOX’s whistleblower provision applies to wholly owned subsidiaries of publicly traded companies, even with respect to action taken prior to the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and therefore protected the employee of the subsidiary.
Ms. Sinisi graduated magna cum laude from the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America, in 2011, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic University Law Review and as a Teaching Assistant for Federal Civil Procedure. While in law school, Ms. Sinisi was a judicial intern for the Honorable John M. Facciola at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She graduated summa cum laude from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Cook Honors College in 2008.
Ms. Sinisi is admitted to practice law in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.
