Adam S. Ross

Education Law
Labor Relations & Employment Law
Litigation & Alternative Dispute Resolution
Municipal Law

Adam S. Ross joined Keane & Beane, P.C. as a Member in 2024 with extensive experience in education law, labor & employment law, municipal law and litigation. Mr. Ross represents public employers in collective bargaining, contract arbitrations and proceedings before the Public Employment Relations Board. He also has significant experience in disciplinary proceedings pursuant to Civil Service Law Section 75, Education Law Section 3020-a and collective bargaining agreements. Mr. Ross regularly provides guidance to clients on Taylor Law issues, contract interpretations, the Civil Service Law and its regulations, leave requests and harassment and discrimination claims. For school districts, his work also includes advice on teachers’ probationary periods, tenure and recall rights, and annual professional performance reviews.

Mr. Ross previously served as General Counsel of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) from 2011 to 2018 and as the UFT’s Special Counsel from 2006 to 2011. As the UFT’s General Counsel, Mr. Ross negotiated and drafted collective bargaining agreements on behalf of over 200,000 UFT-represented employees in more than 20 bargaining units in both the public and private sectors. He was responsible for directing the UFT’s handling of a wide range of labor and employment matters before state and federal administrative agencies, arbitrators, and the state and federal courts, both in the UFT’s role as a labor union as well as an employer. His practice included a broad array of other matters, including education, contracts, arbitration, and general corporate matters, as well as coordinating and directing the UFT’s internal and outside counsel.

Mr. Ross is the chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section’s Public Sector Committee and an assistant editor of the soon to be published update to the New York State Bar Association’s treatise “Lefkowitz on Public Sector Labor and Employment Law.” He has presented to the Long Island Chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association, the New York State Association of School Attorneys, the New York State School Boards Association, and the Annual Nassau County District Attorney Office Labor Conference on a range of topics including collective bargaining, civil service employees’ leave rights, marijuana legalization and free speech in the workplace. Mr. Ross’ work also includes regularly training school district supervisory staff on the proper procedures for disciplining educators and the proper manner in which to calculate educators’ seniority. In August 2020 he was interviewed by WGRZ -Channel 2 News regarding the legal rights of teachers returning to the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• State Courts of New York
• United Stated District Court for the Southern District

• New York State Bar Association Public Sector Labor Relations Committee (Co-Chair)
• Executive Committees of the New York State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section (Member)
• Nassau County Bar Association (Member)

• NYSSBA On Board article: “Are school district employees entitled to overtime pay for COVID-19 testing when done pursuant to the state Health Commissioner’s determination?” (May 10, 2022)
• Assistant editor of the soon to be published update to the New York State Bar Association’s treatise “Lefkowitz on Public Sector Labor and Employment Law”

• 2002, J.D., Boston University School of Law
• 1999, B.S., Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations