Employment Arbitration

Although most of my work as an arbitrator has been in traditional labor arbitration, I also serve as an arbitrator in employment cases. I have over thirty-five years of experience as an AV-rated civil litigator, primarily in employment, labor, and civil rights/civil liberties cases.

I am qualified to act as sole arbitrator or panel chair in statutory employment arbitrations conducted by FINRA, and I am a member of the AAA Panel of Employment Arbitrators. I have also been selected ad hoc by parties to employment arbitration agreements.

When I was in private practice, statutory employment litigation made up about half of my docket. On the defense side, I represented unions sued either as employers or as “labor organizations,” often in tandem with unionized employers like UPS. I also represented a fair number of plaintiffs in employment cases.

I have litigated cases involving most of the federal employment statutes including Title VII (race, sex, national origin, and religion cases), the Equal Pay Act, the ADEA, the ADA/Rehabilitation Act, the FMLA, the Polygraph Protection Act, the WARN Act, and the FLSA, among others. I have tried employment cases to EEOC administrative judges, to federal judges in bench trials, and to juries. I believe my extensive experience in employment litigation and my years as a labor arbitrator have prepared me well to serve as a neutral in employment arbitrations.

In employment cases, my philosophy is to work with the parties to develop a fair and efficient schedule for discovery, motions practice, and hearings. Because facts drive cases, adequate discovery is essential to a fair hearing. But discovery disputes waste time and cause friction between the parties. Thus, I will do everything I can to resolve discovery problems through promptly scheduled telephone conferences. I also encourage advocates to keep briefs brief and motions to a minimum. A prompt, fair hearing is the best way to resolve disputes that cannot be settled through mediation, and that is what I try to give parties in employment arbitration cases.