Frisbie, Michele Kubiak

WAYNE J. POSITAN concentrates his practice in the areas of labor and employment representing management and defendants; non-compete litigation; governmental law representing public entities and officials in litigation; appellate practice; and commercial litigation. He is on the United States District Court for the District of NJ Panel of Mediators, a NJ Court Appointed Mediator, and serves as a mediator in voluntary mediations.

In several nationally reported cases, he obtained a successful no-cause of action jury verdict in the defense of individual defendant picketers in Baliko v. Stecker, a sexual harassment suit brought by female construction workers crossing a picket line; successfully defended former New Jersey Attorney General Peter Verniero in a suit brought by former State Police Superintendent Carl Williams of the New Jersey State Police; represented Pepsi Bottling Group in a large wage and hour case in the New Jersey Department of Labor; and successfully represented a departing Vice-President in a non-compete case between two Fortune 500 companies. He has also been involved in over twenty-five appellate decisions which have shaped the development of labor and employment law in New Jersey, such as LePore v. National Tool, one of the original whistleblower suits. He has extensive experience in the area of collective bargaining negotiations and labor arbitration. He was involved in the negotiation of the project labor agreement at the Meadowlands landfill, and mediation/arbitrations arising under it. He recently completed the negotiation of several collective bargaining agreements in the gas distribution industry for GTS Welco Technologies and Welco Acetylene Corp. He has been involved in matters involving disputes between shareholders/officers in closely-held companies, partnerships and professional entities. He successfully represented Isolatek International in Chancery Division proceedings and a subsequent AAA arbitration against the former president of the company regarding his employment agreement and non-competition provisions. The former president made claims for compensation and bonuses; Isolatek successfully counterclaimed for recoupment of two years of compensation and bonuses paid based on the former president’s breach of fiduciary duty, breach of duty of loyalty, violation of his non-compete provisions, and breach of the employment agreement. The award in favor of our client Isolatek was $625,530 in damages and $177,206 in attorney’s fees and costs, totaling $797,736. He has also served as Special Labor Counsel to the NJ Administrative Office of the Courts.

NEW JERSEY STATE BAR ASSOCIATION

As President of the NJSBA, he instituted the following initiatives: the Pipeline Task Force, a diversity initiative designed to nurture minority students throughout their education to become lawyers and judges; the Task Force on Disaster Planning, to assist lawyers and the legal system to be ready to respond to disasters; the Task Force on Sections, Committees and Infrastructure, to examine how to improve the structure and mission of the bar association. He served as a member of the Steering Committee for the New Jersey State Bar Foundation Capital Campaign to make improvements and maintain the New Jersey Bar Center.

LECTURES/PUBLIC SPEAKING

He has spoken at well over a hundred continuing legal education programs and lectures, and as a commentator in a multitude of varied media presentations and interviews on the subject of labor and employment law, litigation, legal ethics, and the profession, including addressing the Conference of Chief Justices on the subject of the ethics rules regarding multijurisdictional practice. He also taught courses on the NJ Law Against Discrimination and CEPA litigation at the Annual New Jersey Judicial College in 2009. In August 2012, he presented, on behalf of the ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission, the Model Rule on Practice Pending Admission adopted by the ABA House of Delegates.