Eric Paltell has practiced law since 1987, concentrating in the representation of private and public sector employers in all aspects of labor and employment law. Eric’s practice includes general advice and counseling in employment matters, as well EEO and disability litigation, wage and hour cases, ERISA litigation, NLRB proceedings, collective bargaining negotiations, and grievance arbitrations. He is the Managing Partner of the Firm’s Virginia office, and he splits his time between Baltimore and Charlottesville.
Eric is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and has been named Baltimore’s Management Labor/Employment “Lawyer of the Year” four times (2020, 2018, 2015, and 2014) by the Best Lawyers in America. Eric is also listed as one of the top labor attorneys in Maryland in the Chambers USA publication, “America’s Leading Business Lawyers,” and has been named one of the survey’s Top 100 Maryland Lawyers each year since 2012.
Eric also spends a substantial portion of his time mediating employment law disputes. He has been an employment law mediator since 1997. He mediates with the EEOC and the Circuit Courts of Baltimore, Cecil, and Howard Counties. In addition to his Maryland mediation practice, Eric is affiliated with Positive Solutions Group in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he is certified through the Supreme Court of Virginia to practice as a mediator in General District and Circuit Courts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Eric is also a member of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s Employment Disputes Panel.
Eric is a guest lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches classes on employment law and mediation. He is also on the faculty of the National Public Employers Labor Relations Association Labor Relations Academy, where he teaches programs on collective bargaining and grievance arbitration, as well as the National Employment Law Institute, where he has taught programs on the Family and Medical Leave Act and sexual harassment. Eric is also the author of the Virginia Employment Law Blog, where he writes about recent employment law developments in the Commonwealth.