Darnley Stewart is a plaintiff’s employment and civil rights lawyer. She graduated from Princeton University in 1984 and received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 1990. Prior to entering private practice, she served as Law Clerk to the Honorable R. Ammi Cutter and the Honorable Mel. L. Greenberg of the Massachusetts Court of Appeals.

Ms. Stewart's practice focuses on discrimination class actions and she has prosecuted high impact cases against a number of large companies, including Ford Motor Company, Gerber, Coastal Corporation, First Union Bank, National Car Rental, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota, and Bank of America. She is currently serving as co–lead counsel in a gender class action entitled Bell, et al. v. Lockheed Martin Corporation , pending in the District of New Jersey. In connection with her work on Coleman, et al. v. General Motors Acceptance Corporation , Ms. Stewart was named as a finalist for "Trial Lawyer of the Year" in 2004 by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. She has also been named as one of the leading 500 plaintiffs' lawyers in the country and one of America's top 1000 litigators by Lawdragon magazine. In addition, Ms. Stewart was selected for inclusion in the list of 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 New York Super Lawyers and one of the New York Area's Best Lawyers for 2011 by New York Magazine.

While Ms. Stewart’s practice focuses on class actions, she also has had substantial success prosecuting individual discrimination claims. In 2011, she obtained a plaintiff’s verdict at trial in two different cases. In the first, Castro v. City of New York, et al, 05-cv-593 (KTD)(MHD), Ms. Stewart was lead trial counsel in an individual retaliation case brought against the City of New York which resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict of $400,000, including punitive damages of $50,000 each against the two named defendants. In McMillan v. Millennium Broadway Hotel , 09-cv-6053 (PGG), an individual race discrimination case, Ms. Stewart obtained a plaintiff’s verdict of $1.125 million, including a punitive damages award of $1 million. To see the New York Times article on that result please click here.

Ms. Stewart is the President of the Executive Board of the New York affiliate of National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA/NY). She is also a member of the Class and Collective Action Committee of NELA National, and the Technology in the Law and Workplace Committee of the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Section. Ms. Stewart lectures regularly on employment class action issues, and has frequently commented in the media, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, National Public Radio and the Today show, regarding issues raised in a variety of employment discrimination cases. She also sits on the Advisory Boards of the Bronx Academy of Letters, Workplace Fairness, and NYU's Center for Labor and Employment Law.