Olshan Employment Practice Adds Michael J. Passarella as Partner

Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP today announced that Michael J. Passarella has joined the firm as a partner in the firm’s Employment Practice. Passarella’s practice encompasses both general employment litigation and litigation preventative practices, including legal guidance and counseling to employers with both union and non-union employees across a broad range of labor and employee relations issues.

“We are delighted that Michael has joined Olshan’s Employment Practice,” said co-administrative partner Steven R. Gursky. “Our clients face an increasingly complex landscape in dealing with labor and employment issues, and Michael’s addition will strengthen our client capabilities in this significant area. He brings deep experience in employment litigation prevention through employer counseling, a service that is of increasing interest to our clients.”

Prior to joining Olshan, Passarella was a principal at Jackson Lewis P.C. where he routinely represented employers in hearings before the National Labor Relations Board and in collective bargaining negotiations and arbitrations for employers across the country. He has conducted vulnerability assessments for employers and has provided management training in union and litigation avoidance, sexual harassment prevention, leave management, and hiring and firing practices. He provides strategic and legal communications advice in mergers and acquisitions involving unionized, partially unionized, and non-union companies, union organizing and elections, corporate campaigns, and picketing.

Passarella’s employer counseling practice includes assisting companies with handbook and personnel policy drafting and review, daily management of employee disciplines and terminations, and general advice and counsel on compliance with federal and state employment laws. Passarella has extensive litigation experience representing employers in discrimination, wage and hour, whistleblower, and wrongful termination claims before state and federal courts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and various other administrative agencies across the country.

Passarella earned his J.D. from Tulane University Law School, where he was vice president of the Tulane Sports Law Society.  He earned a B.A. in History from Harvard University where he was captain of the Men’s Varsity Tennis Team and a member of the Undergraduate Advisory Committee on Athletics.

About Olshan
Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP, a law firm based in New York, represents major businesses and entrepreneurs in their most significant transactions, problems and opportunities. Olshan’s clients range from public companies, hedge, venture capital, private equity and other investment funds to entrepreneurs and private companies worldwide. Clients choose Olshan for innovative strategies and sophisticated, game-changing advice in corporate, securities law, equity investment and shareholder activism, complex commercial, corporate and securities litigation, real estate, intellectual property, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, and advertising. Since its founding, Olshan has offered an alternative to the AmLaw 50 law firm business model with responsive, independent and client-focused legal counsel provided by the firm’s senior lawyers.