Paul A. Salvatore

Paul Salvatore provides strategic labor and employment law advice to companies, boards of directors, senior executives and general counsel in such areas as labor-management relations, major litigation, alternative dispute resolution, international labor and employment issues, and corporate transactions. He also represents universities and colleges in their labor and employment relations, including in the currently active areas of graduate student and adjunct faculty union organizing.

Paul negotiates major collective bargaining agreements in several industries, including real estate and construction. In 2015, he represented the NYC real estate industry’s multi-employer organization, The Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB) in its $8 billion collective bargaining agreements with SEIU Local 32BJ. Paul also represented the Cement League, a multiemployer group of NYC area superstructure contractors, in halting an illegal strike by the Carpenters Union and negotiating a significant new collective bargaining agreement. He previously negotiated, on behalf of The Related Group with 18 New York City construction unions, a landmark project labor agreement (PLA) for Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side, the largest private real estate development in U.S. history.

He also tries arbitrations and litigations, and argues appeals, arising from labor-management relationships. Paul argued and won before the U.S. Supreme Court 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett. In a 5-4 decision of importance to employers, the Court held a collective bargaining agreement that explicitly requires unionized employees to arbitrate employment discrimination claims is enforceable, modifying 35 years of labor law. In 2016, he argued and won NBC Universal Media, LLC v. NLRB, where the D.C. Circuit -- rejecting the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) analysis -- found “the reasoning supporting the [NLRB’s] judgment … incomprehensible.”

An honors graduate of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and the Cornell Law School, Paul serves on Cornell’s Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee. Among other Trustee roles, he is Co-Chair of the Committee on Development and served on the Cornell NYC Tech Task Force. Paul is a member of the Law School and ILR Deans’ Advisory Councils. In 2002, ILR awarded him the Judge William B. Groat prize, the school’s highest honor.

At Proskauer, Paul was elected to its Executive Committee and served as co-chair of its global Labor & Employment Law Department, named by The American Lawyer and Chambers USA as one of the premier U.S. practices. He is widely recognized as a leading U.S. labor and employment lawyer in such publications as Chambers Global and USA (Band 1), and Legal 500 (Leading Lawyer). The National Law Journal selected Paul as one of "The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers" – one of only three in the labor and employment law field. His peers elected him to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Paul counsels business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its Litigation Center. An active speaker and writer on labor and employment law issues, he serves as the longtime legal columnist for Human Resource Executive Magazine. Recent publications include “The Pyett Protocol: Collectively Bargained Grievance Arbitration as a Forum for Individual Statutory Employment Claims” (co-authored by Terry Meginniss) in Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America (Cambridge University Press 2016) (edited by Samuel Estreicher and Joy Radice).