Stuart W. Davidson

Stuart W. Davidson has represented labor unions and employee benefit plans since graduating from Harvard Law school in 1982. Stuart began his legal career by successfully defending the pension rights of state employees in a case that was ultimately decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  Resident in the firm’s Philadelphia office, Stuart also counsels unions in the Chicago area through the firm’s Of Counsel relationship with Illinois Advocates, LLC.

During Stuart’s legal career, he has been involved in representing a wide range of union workers, including musicians, longshoremen, university faculty, firefighters, film and television casting directors, teamsters, police officers, food and commercial workers and NFL players. His work for both public and private-sector unions includes leading contract negotiations, presenting interest and grievance arbitrations, representing employee benefit funds and advising clients on internal union matters. Stuart has also played key roles in the development of new and progressive benefit structures with the pension and health and welfare plans he represents.

In addition to his work as chief counsel to large regional and local unions along the East and Gulf coasts, Stuart is a frequent lecturer, teacher and author on issues such as ERISA, fiduciary responsibilities, labor law, employment discrimination, drug and alcohol testing and other labor and employment concerns. He regularly speaks at programs sponsored by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, and has taught at the Pennsylvania State University Union Leadership Academy, the Pennsylvania State Occupational Safety and Health Institute, the Harvard Trade Union Program and Harvard Business School.

He is committed to community service. Johns Hopkins University elected him to its board of trustees in 1979. As a trustee, he helped generate private-sector support for the extraordinary work being performed by the University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health by aiding in the establishment of the Advisory Council for Occupational and Environmental Health, on which he served for nearly a decade.  Stuart is a Fellow of he College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has served as a commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority.  He has also served as Chair of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plan's Professionals Committee; Chair of the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners, an appointment made by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; and Chair of the American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center. He now serves on the Board of Advisors for the Workshop Shool located in Philadelphia and "Our Generation Speaks", a fellowship program and incubator creating cohorts of young Israeli and Palestinian community leaders who cooperate across ethic and political lines to build shared prosperity within the region.