Rankled Business Community Feeling Overbilled by Council, Crain’s NY Business, ft. Keith Gutstein

Keith J. Gutstein, partner at Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck, LLP in Woodbury, NY was quoted in a June 2015 Crain’s NY Business article written by Andrew Hawkins. Last week, the NY City Council approved the Fair Chance Act, also known as the “ban the box” bill for the check boxes where job applicants disclose past convictions. It would forbid employers from digging up criminal histories until they are about to extend a job offer, and require them to explain in writing why they reject applicants who have records.

“This is just the latest expansion of the city’s Human Rights Law,” said Keith Gutstein, a partner at law firm Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck and co-chair of its labor and employment practice, noting a 2014 provision adding unemployment to the list of factors that can’t be held against applicants. “It applies further red tape to the hiring process.”