Top Rated Employee Benefits Attorney in Los Angeles, CA

Scholarly Lectures/Writings

• Chapter Co-Editor (Jointly Administered Plans) and Contributing Author, Employee Benefits Law, American Bar Association/Bureau of National Affairs (2010-present)
• Instructor, National Education Association, Grievance and Arbitration Training Program, Anaheim (2002)
• Co-Facilitator, Labor Arbitration Training, American Arbitration Association, Las Vegas, Nevada (2002)
• Adjunct Professor, USC Gould School of Law (2016-Present)
• Lecturer, “VEBAs,” Capital Stewardship Institute, National Labor College, Los Angeles (2008)
• Instructor, Labor Studies, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, Los Angeles Community College District (1995-Present)
• J. Paller & S. Kaplan, The Protection of Employee Privacy, The Employee Termination Handbook (Wiley Interscience, 1986)
• Contributing Author, Defense of Non-Traditional Labor Protest Activities, AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (AFL-CIO 2001)
• Contributor, weekly “Shop Talk” column, Los Angeles Times (1997-2002)
• NLRB Forbids Regions’ Ex Parte Communications With Supervisors In Organizations Represented by Counsel, California Labor & Employment Law Quarterly (2003)
• Fiduciary Investment Issues in Defined Contribution Plans, Benefits & Compensation Digest (web exclusive) (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, August 2006)
• “Gentlemen Do Not Read Each Other’s Mail:” A Lawyer’s Duties upon Receipt of Inadvertently Disclosed Confidential Information, The Labor Lawyer, Vol. 21, No. 3 (American Bar Association, Winter/Spring 2006)
• Union Lawyers Are Not Liable for Malpractice or Breach of the DFR in Labor Arbitration or Contract Negotiations, LCC Bulletin, No. 183 (AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, July-August 2007)
• J. Paller & A. Barnes, The Economics of Wage & Hour Litigation: Recovering Attorney’s Fees and Costs, Wage & Hour Litigation Issues, The Labor Law Exchange, Vol. 22 (AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, 2008)
• Fair Representation and the Attorney Client Relationship in Labor Arbitration: Dilemmas for Union Counsel, Arbitration 2011: Varieties of the Arbitration Experience; Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting, National Academy of Arbitrators, Bureau of National Affairs (2012)

Educational Background

• Bachelor of Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bar/Professional Activity

• Mr. Paller has long been active in professional organizations, such as the American Bar Association. He presently serves as a Chapter Co-Editor for the current edition of the leading legal treatise on ERISA, Employee Benefits Law, published jointly by the American Bar Association and Bloomberg BNA. He is a Union Co-Chair of the ABA Subcommittee on Jointly-Administered Plans of the Labor & Employment Law Section. 
• Member, Planning Committee, Labor Law Conference, co-sponsored by National Labor Relations Board Regions 21 and 31, the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service and the Orange County Labor and Employment Relations Association (1989-present)
• Founding Co-Chair (1990), and Member, Planning Committee (1994), Entertainment Industry Labor Law Conference, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bar Association
• Chair, Southern California Labor and Employment Law Symposium, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bar Association (1989)
• Member, Executive Committee, Orange County Chapter, Labor and Employment Relations Association (1988-present)
• Member, Executive Committee, Labor and Employment Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (1988-present)
• President, Orange County Labor and Employment Relations Association (formerly, Orange County Industrial Relations Research Association) (1993-94)
• Union Co-Chair, ERISA Litigation Subcommittee of the Committee on Employee Rights and Responsibilities of the Labor and Employment Law Section, American Bar Association (1987-2002)
• Chair, Labor and Employment Law Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association (1993-94)
• Chair, AFL-CIO Lawyers Committee on State and Local Privacy Legislation (2001)
• Member, Board of Directors, AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (2005-08)
• Union Co-Chair, Subcommittee on Taft-Hartley Plans of the Employee Benefits Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section, American Bar Association (2012-present)
• Fellow, College of Labor and Employment Lawyers (2012-present)
• Fellow, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (2017-present)
• Member, Board of Governors, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (2020-present)
• For many years, Mr. Paller was a regular contributor to the “Shoptalk” column in the Los Angeles Times, providing answers to labor and employment questions. He was the only member of the panel of responding lawyers who represented trust funds or unions.
• He lectures frequently for the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance, most recently at the 2020 Advanced ERISA Seminar. He speaks and serves as a moderator for the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, most recently in 2019 at the Annual Employee Benefits Conference. Since 2000, he has spoken at more than 60 other events, including programs sponsored by the American Bar Association, the National Labor Relations Board, the State Bar of California, the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance, the UFCW Attorneys Conference, the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service, the Labor & Employment Relations Association and its subchapters, and the California School Personnel Commissioners Association.
• Since 2000, Mr. Paller has spoken at more than 65 national and local events, including programs sponsored by the AFL‑CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, the UFCW Attorneys Conference, the American Bar Association, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, the Labor & Employment Relations Association and its subchapters, and the California School Personnel Commissioners Association.
• Mr. Paller’s articles on labor and employee benefits issues have appeared in many books and journals, including the Labor Lawyer published by the American Bar Association, the California Labor & Employment Law Quarterly published by the State Bar of California, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Arbitrators published by Bloomberg BNA, various white papers published by the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, and the Benefits & Compensation Digest published by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. 
• Mr. Paller served as a member of the Board of Directors of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (now renamed the Union Lawyers Alliance) from 2005 through 2008. He served as Chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association from 1993 to 1994, he and has been a member of the Section’s Executive Committee since 1987.
• Mr. Paller is a Chapter Co-Editor of Employee Benefits Law, the leading legal text on ERISA, published jointly by the American Bar Association and Bloomberg BNA. He is a Union Co-Chair of ABA Subcommittee on Jointly-Administered Plans, which focuses on multiemployer and other Taft-Hartley Trust Funds. His articles on have appeared in many books and legal journals, including the Labor Lawyer published by the American Bar Association, the California Labor & Employment Law Review published by the California Lawyers Association, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Arbitrators published by Bloomberg BNA, and various white papers published by the AFL CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee.

Honors/Awards

• Mr. Paller is one of a handful of Attorneys in North America who has been inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, in recognition of his contributions to labor law, and as a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (“ACEBC”), in recognition of his achievements as an ERISA practitioner. In 2020, Mr. Paller was elected to the Board of Governors of the ACEBC., ACEBC
• Over 20 consecutive years, Mr. Paller has been selected to the Super Lawyers® list for employee benefits law or employment law. issued by Thomson Reuters, a distinction awarded to only 5% of lawyers in California. Since 1998, Mr. Paller has been rated AV-Preeminent®, the highest level of professional excellence, by Martindale Hubbell.
• Mr. Paller has been chosen as one of America’s Most Honored Lawyers for 2020 and 2021 by the American Registry, Only the top 5% of America’s lawyers were selected for this award.
• Each year from 2018 through 2020, Mr. Paller has been recognized in Lawdragon’s 500 Plaintiff Employment Lawyers, an honor reserved for the top 500 plaintiff-side employment lawyers in the United States. The Daily Journal (the leading legal newspaper in California) has ranked Mr. Paller, top 75 employment attorneys in California.
• Mr. Paller has been honored in U.S. News & World Report as the “Lawyer of the Year” in 2020 and 2017 in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area in the field of “Labor Law-Union,” as chosen by Best Lawyers in America. Only a single lawyer in Los Angeles, “Lawyer of the Year”