STEPHEN J. POLLAK
Stephen J. Pollak is a partner and former Chair of the Executive Committee of Shea &
Gardner (1993-1996). Mr. Pollak joined the Finn in 1969 after serving in the United States
Department of Justice and the White House from 1961 through 1969. Among his governmental
positions were Advisor to the President for National Capital Affairs (1967) and First
Assistant and Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division (1965-67,
1967-69) and Assistant to the Solicitor General (1961-64), U.S. Department of Justice.
Mr. Pollak’s legal practice has consisted primarily of representing clients in trial and
appellate litigation in the Federal Courts, the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, and various
District Courts and before federal departments and agencies. Cases Mr. Pollak has argued in
the Supreme Court of the United States are listed at the conclusion of this resume. His fields
of concentration in litigation have included constitutional law, labor and antitrust law, civil
rights, ERISA, and legal ethics. He has also represented individuals under investigation for
possible violation of federal laws, including lawyers and law firms against whom complaints
have been lodged with the Bar Counsel.
Since 1989, Mr. Pollak has been a member of the Panel of Mediators appointed by
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Panel of Mediators
appointed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He has served as mediator
in approximately 7 5 cases and arbitrator in five cases that went through evidentiary hearing
to decision. Mr. Pollak is also a member of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution’s
Washington, D.C., Panel of Distinguished Neutrals. Mr. Pollak serves as a training consultant
in negotiation for the Office of Dispute Resolution of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mr. Pollak has served as lead counsel for the United Mine Workers of America Health
and Retirement Funds, a collectively bargained multiemployer benefit fund, in litigation over
the validity under the labor and antitrust laws of provisions of the bargaining agreement requiring
contributions to the Funds on coal purchased by companies signatory to the agreement.
Mr. Pollak has handled more than 50 cases of this nature for the Funds, recovering more than
$100 million in contributions. Other litigation for the Funds includes lawsuits testing the
meaning of the 1992 Coal Act which created the UMW A Combined Benefit Fund.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Pollak was lead outside counsel for the National
Education Association in many cases at trial, on appeal and in the Supreme Court presenting
frontier constitutional, civil rights and labor issues.
Mr. Pollak served as counsel to the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare, Joseph Califano, in drafting regulations implementing Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and was counsel for respondent Camenisch in the University of
Texas v. Camenisch, 451 U.S. 390 (1981), in which the rights under federal law of a student
with a hearing impairment to have the assistance of a sign language interpreter were at issue.
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