Bruce J. Gitlin has been practicing law for nearly 40 years. Bruce attended the Industrial & Labor Relations School at Cornell University and Fordham University School of Law where he served on the Fordham Urban Law Journal. He was an associate in a personal injury practice, later an associate in the litigation department of Rosenman & Colin and following Rosenman & Colin, he established, a private practice which has become the firm of Gitlin, Horn & Van de Kieft, specializing in the fields of personal injury, criminal defense and commercial litigation. Bruce has served on the Board of Directors of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and remains a member.
Bruce has been serving the deaf and hard of hearing communities for nearly 40 years. In August 2004, Bruce co-founded the New York Center for Law and Justice, along with Liz Gitlin, to provide a one-stop center for individuals who are deaf and require both legal and social services. The practice has expanded to include work in the areas of housing, consumer debt, asylum, benefits, and family law, among additional needed services.
In January 2018, Bruce served as part of a trial team in Federal Court that secured a verdict for a worker who had a hearing disability. The verdict was in excess of 1.3 million dollars, which included punitive damages based upon discrimination in the workplace. The case was brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act and local human rights laws.
In October 2019, Bruce was awarded the John R. Dunne Champion of Justice Award at the annual event held for Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York as a result of his work in behalf of assisting with the re-entry of a deaf prisoner who had been imprisoned, including in solitary confinement, for decades.
Bruce was featured on the front page of the New York Law Journal, along with Liz Gitlin, for their work in co-founding The New York Center For Law and Justice. Bruce is a past member of the Legal Issues Affecting People with Disabilities Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has lectured on issues involving the rights of the deaf. He is a member of the Disability Rights Bar Association.
Bruce’s dedication to fighting for individuals who seek justice finds its source in the work of Martin Gitlin — Bruce’s father — who championed the rights of individuals through his private law practice that was established seventy years ago.
