Brian Stolzenbach

Mr. Brian M. Stolzenbach is a creative yet practical counselor, litigator, and negotiator. Capable of designing and executing different strategies and tactics for different situations, he seeks first and foremost to understand his client’s objectives before charting a path forward. Consistent with his adaptable approach, Mr. Stolzenbach has significant experience representing and counseling employers in many different industries.

In addition to representing employers in labor relations litigation and collective bargaining, Mr. Stolzenbach also provides his clients with positive employee relations training and legal and practical advice on a wide spectrum of labor relations issues, including lockouts and strikes, card-check and neutrality agreements, corporate campaigns, traditional organizing campaigns, withdrawal liability and other employee benefits matters, successorship and other subjects related to mergers and acquisitions, leased employees, employee committees, and labor-related bankruptcy issues.

Over the years, Mr. Stolzenbach has represented or counseled employers in labor relations matters involving virtually every major private sector labor union in the country. Mr. Stolzenbach also maintains a robust employment litigation practice. Equally comfortable pursuing victory on a motion or at trial, at ease before a jury, private arbitrator, trial judge, or appellate panel, he defends employers throughout the country against any kind of legal claim their employees and former employees can imagine.

He has defended statutory claims of discrimination and retaliation, various claims under ERISA, and common law claims for breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, promissory estoppel, defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, and more. Even so, he also works proactively with his clients on a daily basis to mitigate legal risk by training and counseling them on employment law and sound employee relations.

Finally, although his practice is focused almost entirely on labor and employment law, Mr. Stolzenbach also defends lawsuits filed by students against educational institutions, and he has represented clients in litigation involving municipal contracting and the Fourteenth Amendment, the separation of powers within local government, and the alleged intimidation of witnesses.

During law school, he also served as a Felony Trial Division Intern in the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for Washtenaw County, Michigan, where he tried and won several cases and provided substantial assistance in the successful prosecution of murderers and sex offenders. He also served as a judicial intern for the Honorable Patrick J. Duggan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Education:

• J.D., University of Michigan, cum laude
  • ABA-BNA Labor Law Award
  • Book Award in Law & Bioethics
• A.B., University of Missouri, cum laude with Honors in History
  • Curators Scholar
• Certified Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt