Salvatore, a lawyer who enjoys solving labor squabbles.

Paul Salvatore likes to be at the center of the storm. In fact, he finds himself there quite regularly as the attorney representing the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB) in labor negotiations.

"I love what I do because its people law, involving all the issues that people deal with in our society brought into the workplace," said Salvatore.

"I enjoy helping employers solve problems."

A partner in the prestigious law firm Proskauer Rose LLP, Salvatore's reputation as a savvy negotiator was sealed in 1996, the year more than 30,000 maintenance workers from 1000 commercial buildings in New York city went on strike.

Working on behalf of New York's leading building owners, managers and contractors, Salvatore was a principal negotiator with officials from Local 32B-32J, one of the city's largest unions. The RAB sought to hold the line on costs by reducing the starting salary for janitors, while offering a pay increase for current employees. Refusing concessions, the union balked--and walked--in one of the largest walkouts in labor history.

After four weeks holed up in a hotel in marathon negotiations as blizzards raged outside, the RAB and then union president Gus Bevona signed a deal that--while including the reduced starting salary--was heralded by The New York Times editorial page as an example of how collective bargaining is supposed to work. For Salvatore, who has represented the real estate industry for well over a decade, it was yet another labor and employment dispute resolved.

Since joining Proskauer after graduating from Cornell Law School in 1984, Salvatore has emerged as one of the country's premier labor and employment lawyers and a prominent member of New York's real estate industry.

With commercial and residential labor agreements expiring on a staggered schedule, Salvatore negotiates several new contracts on behalf of the RAB, having most recently concluded deals with Local 94 of the Operating Engineers in January 2004 and Local 32B-32J, covering approximately 30,000 residential building workers in April 2003.

The bargaining calendar for the rest of 2004 should shape up to be one of the busiest in years, with seven commercial building sector contracts up for renewal.

In addition to the New York City commercial building and commercial cleaning agreements, the year will include other contracts with suburban building service workers, which have organized under new 32B-32J president, Mike Fishman.

"It's crucial for an attorney in negotiating situations to have the respect of his clients as well as the opposing side," says Salvatore. "Your client must know that you will represent them vigorously and the other side must know that your word is your bond."

In the case of the RAB, Salvatore offers the type of insights and understanding that come with his long personal involvement as well as a long institutional memory. Proskauer has represented the organization since after World War II. On the other side, unions know that Salvatore is tough, but that he can be trusted.

"As an advisor, a friend and a negotiator, there's nobody better than Paul," said Jim Berg, president of the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations. "He's a real lawyers' lawyer and someone who's unmatched in his field."

In addition to his work on behalf of the RAB, Salvatore's career highlights include a successful federal court action on behalf of the Long Island Railroad against its locomotive engineers union resulting from the union's illegal pre-Memorial Day weekend job action in 1995.

He also was part of the Proskauer team that successfully represented the New York Times in the 1991 city-wide strike by its drivers' union.

Beyond traditional labor work, Salvatore's practice includes all types of employment litigation, arbitration and mediation for many of the nation's leading real estate organizations, and for employer clients outside the industry.

For example, in 2001 he led a team of Proskauer lawyers, representing the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in a 3-week federal court jury trial, where the plaintiff alleged employment discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation. The jury found for the NYSE on all counts.

Three years earlier, on behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Salvatore and his partner, Allan H. Weitzman, wrote the amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in the Faragher v. City of Boca Raton sex harassment case. In creating a new affirmative defense to sex harassment liability for employers, the Supreme Court adopted SHRM's position.

The Supreme Court is currently considering SHRM's arguments in another closely watched sexual harassment case, to be argued and decided this term. Salvatore and his Proskauer colleagues again authored SHRM's brief.

Salvatore also provides advice and guidance to clients, counseling employers on how to avoid litigation and achieve their employee relations objectives through such techniques as proactive human resources policies and alternative dispute resolution.

"We have been consistently pleased with the work Paul has done on our behalf," said Kenneth Singleton, executive managing director and general counsel of Cushman & Wakefield.

"He's a great lawyer."

Salvatore is well steeped in labor relations, having studied it since he was an undergraduate at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, which in 2002 awarded him its highest honor, the Judge William B. Groat Distinguished Alumni Award.

Real Estate Industry giant Jack Rudin and then New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso presented Salvatore with the award.