For more than 60 years, our firm has helped thousands of labor union members and non-represented workers, retirees and disabled persons, their families and friends, and many others, who have entrusted us with their personal legal problems, including:
- Real Estate
- Landlord/Tenant Disputes
- Divorces
- Custody, Adoption and Child Support
- Divorce Mediation
- Immigration
- Traffic Court Violations
- Estate Planning
- Wills & Probate Matters
- Living Wills and Powers of Attorney
- Bankruptcy
- Small Business Counseling
- Personal Injury
- Workers Compensation
- Consumer Law Disputes
- Consultation and advice on other personal legal matters
LABOR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
The firm offers committed representation in all areas of labor and employment law including:
- Collective Bargaining Negotiations – From protracted all night negotiating sessions to dealing with mediation agencies, the firm has helped clients negotiate both individual and multi-employer labor agreements.
- Grievance Analysis – We assist both business representatives and shop stewards with the difficult judgments regarding the merits of members’ grievances.
- Arbitrations – In both interest and grievance arbitration matters
- NLRB Litigation – Including Representation Case processing and prosecuting and defending unfair labor practice cases.
- Federal and State Court Litigation – Including contract enforcement litigation, defending breach of the duty claims, defense of picketing injunctions
- Appellate Litigation – Covering all types of labor and employee benefits law questions.
- Landrum-Griffin Litigation – Including the defense of union officer election proceedings before the Department of Labor, trusteeship proceedings and fiduciary breach allegations.
- Seminars on organizing and grievance processing
- Union Governance and Administration
- Drafting and Interpretation of Union Constitutions and Bylaws
- State Labor Board and Commission Cases
- Federal Labor Relations Board/MSPB Cases
- Federal and State Employment Discrimination Claims
- Individual Employment Contracts and Disputes
- Whistleblower Claims
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW
Spear Wilderman represents multiemployer and single-employer private and public employee benefit plans, as well as plan sponsors, participants and beneficiaries on a wide variety of issues and problems arising under ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, the Labor Management Relations Act and state law. Frequent legal developments and the ever-expanding nature of this area of our practice involves our:
- Representing clients in U.S. Department of Labor, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and IRS investigations
- Advising plans on qualification and fiduciary issues and representing them in IRS and DOL remedial proceedings
- Reviewing and negotiating provider contracts
- Reviewing, revising and drafting plan documents, including Summary Plan Descriptions and Plan amendments, both as required by law or to effectuate discretionary amendments affecting plan design and administration
- Advising and litigating withdrawal liability disputes on behalf of multiemployer defined benefit pension plans. We have acted as counsel to plans experiencing mass withdrawal, and have resolved numerous withdrawal liability disputes with and without litigation
- Litigating employer contribution delinquencies, including claims against alter-egos, disguised continuances and double-breasted employers, as well as those arising in bankruptcy
- Advising Unions on the numerous benefits issues that arise in bargaining and administering labor agreements
Spear Wilderman represents benefits clients as well as non-benefit-plan Taft-Hartley entities on a national basis. Our clients come from building and construction, service, public, retail, professional and industrial settings. Our attorneys speak regularly on benefits issues in a wide array of venues, and participate extensively in the Employee Benefits Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor and Employment Law, as well as the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance.