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The firm has an extensive national litigation practice, including jury and bench trials and appellate practice. The firm’s attorneys have both prosecuted and defended complex civil litigation throughout the United States including a substantial number of discrimination, duty of fair representation, fiduciary breach and RICO cases, and antitrust actions. Our plaintiff’s side antitrust representation resulted in a more than $187 million settlement with an international cartel of vitamin manufacturers. In the course of our appellate practice, members of the firm have appeared before every U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and are admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
Members of the firm have handled numerous arbitration cases including complex contractual and disciplinary matters, seniority integration cases, and interest arbitrations under both the Railway Labor Act and the National Labor Relations Act.
We provide legal advice to labor organizations and their officers regarding fiduciary duties, compliance with the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (“LMRDA”), Department of Labor regulations, as well as federal employment and discrimination laws. We have represented clients in United States Department of Labor and Department of Justice investigations.
The firm has represented employee benefit plans, labor plan trustees, and unions in complex ERISA litigation, including allegations of fiduciary breach. This includes litigation of ERISA and other benefits issues arising in the bankruptcy context.
The firm also counsels various employee benefit plans, including single and multiemployer pension plans; defined benefit and defined contribution plans; health and welfare plans; and voluntary employees beneficiary associations (VEBAs). We provide legal advice on issues arising in the administration of employee benefit plans, including fiduciary obligations, Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service regulatory compliance issues, and representation of plans before those agencies. The firm serves as co-counsel to the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust. The firm also possesses specialized experience in the establishment and administration of employee stock ownership plans (ESOP).
The firm has represented labor organizations in all phases of the bankruptcy process, gaining extensive experience in the intersection between labor law and bankruptcy law. The numerous bankruptcy proceedings in which we have been involved on behalf of employee groups include American Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Northwest Airlines, Aloha, Mesaba, TWA, Eastern Airlines and the historic Greenbrier Resort.
The firm has served as negotiations counsel to international labor organizations representing a wide variety of employees in the airline and railroad industries. We have also participated in negotiations on behalf of employee groups at American Airlines, Delta, Northwest, United, TWA, and foreign flag carriers, in addition to the nation’s Class I rail carriers. The firm has also served as negotiations counsel for the labor organization representing employees of LSG Sky Chefs, which provides airline catering.
The three-member National Mediation Board is among the wide array of federal agencies before which firm attorneys have advocated. The firm often has engaged in negotiations under the auspices of the Board. We have also litigated numerous representation and carrier interference disputes, and single employer proceedings before the Board.
The firm has represented numerous labor organizations before more than half a dozen Emergency Boards appointed by the President of the United States. Each made recommendations to resolve labor disputes that threaten to deny essential transportation service to a section of the country. In 2007, the firm represented a coalition of labor organizations representing Amtrak employees before a Presidential Emergency Board which recommended a record back pay award for employees. In the Fall of 2011, the firm successfully represented a coalition of labor organizations whose members are employed on the nation’s largest freight carriers before Presidential Emergency Board 243, which recommended substantial wage increases and resulted in voluntary tentative agreements between the carriers and all of the unions in the coalition.
The firm possesses unique expertise in the law governing union officer elections. Joseph Guerrieri, Jr., founding principal of the firm, served as the independent elections officer for the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) from 2001 until 2011. Mr. Guerrieri served until 2012 as LIUNA Special Elections Officer, with approval of the U.S. Department of Justice, to oversee elections at over 400 locals within the union and to decide election protests. In 2006 and again in 2011, Mr. Guerrieri served as LIUNA Elections Officer for its delegate and International officer elections. The firm has conducted trainings for thousands of Election Judges, officers and candidates involved in union elections and investigated and issued decisions resolving nearly 700 election protests. The firm also has significant experience related to Department of Labor investigations of union elections.
The firm counsels labor organizations on a wide-range of matters involving internal union governance, including matters related to union discipline under Title I of the LMRDA, as well as supervision and trusteeship matters arising under Title III of the Act. Mr. Guerrieri also has experience serving as a third-party Independent Hearing Officer for a large international union, presiding over and ruling on matters related to disciplinary cases, trusteeships and supervisions. Additionally, the firm counsels clients on matters arising under the financial reporting and disclosure requirements and the fiduciary duty of union officers and agents outlined in Title II and Title V of the Act.
The firm also has extensive experience representing its union clients in their employer capacities, including in collective bargaining with staff associations, and ensuring compliance with federal and state employment laws.
The firm represents consumers in complex class-action litigation under state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. We have had leadership roles in many significant nationwide class action cases and have helped shape innovative resolutions to maximize the benefit to victims of unlawful practices.
