Joseph L. Paller Jr.
Top rated employee benefits attorney in Los Angeles, California
Gilbert & Sackman, A Law Corporation
Practice Areas: Employee benefits, Employment & labor, Alternative dispute resolution; view more
Licensed in California since: 1978
Education: University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law
Selected to Super Lawyers: 2004 - 2023 Call today:
323-805-8247
Gilbert & Sackman, A Law Corporation
3699 Wilshire BlvdSuite 1200
Los Angeles, CA 90010-2732 Visit website
Details
Joseph L. Paller Jr. is an employee benefits, employment and labor union attorney at Gilbert & Sackman, A Law Corporation, in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Paller has over 40 years of legal experience and handles pension, health and welfare, employment and labor union issues, as well as class action lawsuits involving wages, hours and other claims. He represents clients in Los Angeles and throughout Southern California as well as across California statewide.
Over the years, Mr. Paller has developed a reputation as a premier employee benefits and union attorney. He has a long history of helping joint labor-management pension and health plans, apprenticeship committees, and labor unions. He has successfully litigated and arbitrated hundreds of cases before courts, administrative agencies, and arbitrators. He has many accomplishments and is AV Preeminent peer-review rated,* the highest rating, through Martindale-Hubbell.
Additionally, Mr. Paller is a member of the Board of Governors and a fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, and a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. The Daily Journal designated him as being one of the top 75 employment attorneys in California, U.S. News & World Report named him Lawyer of the Year in 2017 and 2020, and the American Registry included him on its America’s Most Honored Lawyers list in 2020 and 2021. Each year from 2018 through 2021, Mr. Paller has been recognized in Lawdragon’s 500 Plaintiff & Civil Rights Employment Lawyers, an honor reserved for the top 500 plaintiff-side employment lawyers in the United States.
Over the years, Mr. Paller has been involved in many professional organizations and served in various leadership roles. He is the author of numerous articles and publications on labor and employment law and regularly lectures for organizations such as the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance. In 2021, Mr. Paller also served as a Chapter Co-Editor for the new edition of Labor Union Law & Regulation, published jointly by the American Bar Association and Bloomberg BNA.
Mr. Paller’s articles on employee benefits and employment issues 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.
Mr. Paller earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. He holds licenses to practice law in California, New York, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
*AV®, AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished and Martindale-Hubbell Notable are certification marks used under license in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. Martindale-Hubbell® is the facilitator of a peer-review rating process. Ratings reflect the anonymous opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.
Practice areas
Employee benefits, Employment & labor: employee, Alternative dispute resolution, Class action/mass torts: plaintiffFocus areas
Employment law - employee, Unions, Wage & hour laws, Labor law, Arbitration, Class actions
- 40% Employee benefits
- 30% Employment & labor: employee
- 20% Alternative dispute resolution
- 10% Class action/mass torts: plaintiff
First Admitted: 1978, California
Professional Webpage: https://www.gslaw.org/joseph-l-paller-jr
- Chapter Co-Editor (Jointly Administered Plans) and Contributing Author, Employee Benefits Law, American Bar Association/Bloomberg (2010-present)
- In 2021, Mr. Paller served as Chapter Co-Editor and a Contributing Author for Labor Union Law & Regulation, the leading treatise on the law governing labor unions, jointly published by the American Bar Association and Bllomberg BNA., Chapter Editor and Contributor, Labor Union Law & Regulation, published jointly by American Bar Association and Bloomberg, 2021
- 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)
- 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 the greater Los Angeles area is honored annually with this award., “Lawyer of the Year”
- Bachelor of Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
- 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.
Office location for Joseph L. Paller Jr.
3699 Wilshire Blvd
Suite 1200
Los Angeles, CA 90010-2732
Phone: 323-805-8247
Selections
- Super Lawyers: 2004 - 2023
