Jeffrey W. Pagano is a partner in the Labor & Employment Group. He focuses upon all forms of corporate operating design, litigation and negotiation, primarily in the area of labor and employment law, arising under the NLRA, RLA, Jones Act, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, ADEA, FLSA, SCA, ERISA, E.O. 11246, Rehabilitation Act, VEVRAA, OSHA, ADA, FMLA, SCA, FCRA, FCA, as well as the numerous state statutory schemes impacting the workplace, throughout the U.S. Additionally, he continues to litigate significant complex commercial matters arising out of the purchase and sale of business organizations, intellectual property, and contractual disputes in courts throughout the U.S. or in the arbitration context. His experience and knowledge is deep, having had the opportunity over a 30-year period to strategically build, restructure and/or rebuild organizations, whether union represented or union-free, in order to create value. In doing so, he deals with the complexity of simultaneously achieving internal change, while managing the risk of external liability and minimizing the cost of implementation.

Mr. Pagano has experience in many industries, including all forms of transportation (armored, OTR, shipping, aircraft), manufacturing, financial, automotive, steel, retail and consumer products, hospitality, health care, and a myriad of other service industries. He approaches each assignment as unique, requiring independent and creative thinking, regardless of the “norm,” in order to achieve a client’s objectives.

Mr. Pagano has been involved in hundreds of union organizing campaigns on behalf of management. He also has extensive experience before the NLRB, in collective bargaining, as well as the ongoing administration of the employment relationship, including arbitration. Mr. Pagano has also developed workplace policies and procedures that produce effective internal workplace dispute mechanisms designed to avoid external liability. These practices enhance management’s operational and leadership credibility, while reducing union organizing risk, discrimination claims, whistleblower claims and wage hour claims (collective, class, and individual), which reduces the potential legal spend in the process. In this regard, once a client has followed the program designed by Mr. Pagano, whether in relation to an organizing campaign, wage-hour and other compliance processes or any workplace system, should litigation arise, he can utilize alternative fee arrangements to reduce the legal spend and “partner” with the client toward the resolution of any dispute arising as a consequence. Mr. Pagano’s client relationships are typically long standing because he actually invests in the relationship at many levels.