Patrick Scully is a Member in the Labor and Employment Department of Sherman & Howard’s Denver office. Patrick represents employers in all aspects of labor relations, including federal and state court litigation, representation before federal and state agencies, collective bargaining, organizing defense, labor arbitration, and other matters. He also represents employers in defense of employment discrimination claims and on various employment law matters. Patrick began his career with the National Labor Relations Board as an attorney in Regions 27 (Denver) and 22 (Newark). Prior to joining Sherman & Howard in 1998, Patrick worked as in house counsel for an international union. During 2003, he was employed as an Associate General Counsel for Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Patrick is a long-standing management representative to the National Labor Relations Board practice and procedure committee in Denver and is a Chapter Editor for The Developing Labor Law.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
- Obtained orders from federal district courts vacating arbitration awards issued under the Railway Labor Act and the Labor Management Relations Act. In both cases, the arbitrator had exceeded his authority by altering the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.
- Secured dismissal of NLRB petitions filed in three separate areas of the U.S. involving coordinated union attempts to organize independent contractors.
- Successfully defended a class action brought by Communication Workers of America employees, against the company and the union, claiming they had been denied severance benefits. Showed that the company’s severance practices did not violate the collective bargaining agreement – a required element in the plaintiff’s claims. Plaintiffs, in response, dropped the entire case with prejudice.
- Obtained dismissal, for a large cable operator just prior to its sale, of several decertification petitions alleging that the cable operator had induced and/or improperly assisted employees seeking to decertify the union.
- Twice successfully defended accusations from the United Food and Commercial Workers union that the client refused to recognize a particular union representative – winning first before the NLRB over union accusations that the client’s conduct was an unfair labor practice and winning the second time in federal court – where the Court was persuaded to deny the Union’s Motion to Compel arbitration because the dispute was subject to the primary jurisdiction of the NLRB.
