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Rebecca Houlding

Partner
Justia Lawyer Rating for Rebecca Joan Houlding

Rebecca Houlding is a partner at Friedman & Houlding LLP. She represents victims of discrimination, harassment and retaliation in employment cases, in federal and state courts, and in mediation. 

Ms. Houlding has been practicing employment law since 1996. Prior to becoming a partner at Friedman & Houlding LLP, she was Of Counsel to the Law Offices of Joshua Friedman PC. After working with Josh Friedman for nine years, the two teamed up to form Friedman & Houlding LLP.

Before that, Ms. Houlding worked as an Associate in civil rights law firms in New York and Philadelphia. 

In addition to litigating on behalf of her clients, Ms. Houlding has trained as a mediator with the Harvard Program on Negotiation, as well as the Mediation Center of the Pacific, in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she also served as a volunteer mediator, facilitating resolution of employment cases for the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission. She currently serves on the Court mediation panels for the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. She is available to mediate private disputes between parties, bringing her decades of employment litigation experience to bear in assisting with resolution. Ms. Houlding is a member of the American Arbitration Association National Roster of Arbitrators - Employment Panel. 

Ms. Houlding is a 1995 graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Law. She spent a semester at the Universite Jean Moulin III, in Lyon, France. She is also a graduate of Carleton College, in Northfield, MN. 

She is admitted in numerous federal trial and appellate courts and is licensed to practice law in New York. 

She has been a legal writing instructor at Brooklyn Law School, taught courses in Employment Law and Lawyering Skills at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law and served as an Adjunct Professor/Mentor Mediator for clinical students at New York Law School. 

Ms. Houlding grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where she began her legal career in high school, clerking for a prominent civil rights attorney. She solidified her commitment to advocating for civil rights with internships with the Federal Defender's Office in New Haven, and with the Minnesota Justice Foundation in Minneapolis.

Ms. Houlding lives in Brooklyn with her husband, where she raised two sons. 

Education

JD, University of Minnesota, 1995

BA, Carleton College, 1992

Jurisdictions Admitted to Practice

New York, 1996

Third Circuit Court of Appeals, 1997

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2008

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2014

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2019

USDC - EDPA, 1996

USDC - SDNY , 2001

USDC - EDNY , 2002

USDC - NDNY, 2010

USDC - WDNY, 2011

USDC - EDMI, 2014

USDC - WDMI, 2014

USDC - NDIL, 2018

USDC - CDIL, 2019

USDC - DCT, 2023

Professional & Bar Association Memberships

National Employment Lawyers Association
Member Since: 2014

National Employment Lawyers Association - New York Chapter
Member Since: 2003

Teaching
Adjunct Professor, University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law (Fundamentals of Employment Law, January - February 2025; Employment and Labor Law, March 2022; Lawyering Fundamentals, Spring 2021; Employment Law, March 2020)
Adjunct Professor, New York Law School (Mentor Mediator, Fall 2023 - Spring 2024)
Adjunct Professor, Brooklyn Law School (Legal Writing, Fall 2008; 2015-2016)
Speaking Engagements
Speaker, American Bar Association 18th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference, A Review and Discussion of the EEOC's Guidance on Workplace Harassment, November 2024
Speaker, NELA/NY CLE, Show Us The Money: Putting a Value on Damages in Employment Cases, October 2024
Speaker, NELA/NY CLE, Nuts & Bolts of Hostile Work Environment Cases, October 2023
Speaker, NELA/NY CLE, Discovery After 2015 Amendments, Spring 2017
Speaker, NELA/NY CLE, ESI Best Practices, December 2014
Speaker, NELA/NY CLE, Ethics & Publicity, Spring 2014