Michael McGuinness

Of Counsel

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Mike McGuinness regularly advises employers regarding a wide variety of labor and employment issues such as discrimination and harassment, wrongful termination, reasonable accommodation under the disability laws, wage and hour violations, employee leaves, personnel policies and procedures, and other related matters. Mike frequently conducts varied workplace investigations for employers and assists employers with enforcement proceedings conducted by outside agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the National Labor Relations Board, and the National Mediation Board.

Mike is a recognized authority on the Railway Labor Act and Airline Deregulation Act, and has frequently litigated matters for large airline clients arising under both statutes. He also provides legal advice to airline clients on their collective bargaining agreements and arbitrates disputes arising from those agreements. Mike has handled a variety of labor and consumer class actions, and regularly litigates employment matters through lower and appellate courts.

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Honors & Awards

  • Recognized by The Legal 500 in the “Labor-management relations” category (2017)
  • Named a “Super Lawyer” in a survey conducted by Law & Politics Media Inc. and published in Los Angeles magazine (2012-2014)
  • Selected by the Daily Journal as a Top Labor & Employment Lawyer (2014)

Admissions

Bar Admissions

  • California

Court Admissions

  • US District Court, Central, Northern and Southern Districts of California

Education

  • Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, J.D., 1987: magna cum laude; Editor-in-Chief, Loyola Law Review
  • University of Washington, B.A., 1984: magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa

Professional Activities

Clerkships

  • Honorable William Matthew Byrne, Jr., US District Court, Central District of California

Member

  • Executive Committee
  • Labor and Employment section
  • Los Angeles County Bar Association

Author

  • “California’s ‘Unique’ Approach to Arbitration:  Why the Road Less Traveled Will Make All The Difference on the Issue of Preemption Under the Federal Arbitration Act”, Journal of Dispute Resolution (2005) 
  • Represented longtime client US Airways in a successful breach of contract arbitration against Republic Airlines in New York
  • Successfully argued a complex Airline Deregulation Act issue of first impression before the First Circuit Court of Appeals in an alleged class action filed by skycaps working at Boston’s Logan International Airport.  Mitchell v. US Airways, Inc., 720 F.3d 60 (1st Cir. 2013)
  • Secured summary judgment in April 2013 for US Airways in a wage and hour class action in federal court in Phoenix
  • Obtained preliminary injunction for Atlas Air that prohibited the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and its pilot members from engaging in slowdown activities designed to give the union greater leverage in collective bargaining. Atlas Air, Inc. v. Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters, 280 F. Supp. 3d 59 (D.D.C. 2017)
  • Won full dismissal for American Airlines of a case brought by four American pilots challenging an arbitration decision that the airline did not breach a seniority integration agreement
  • Successfully represented American Airlines in a Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision finding that American integrated the airline seniority lists of American Airlines and U.S. Airways pilots in a fair and equitable manner under the McCaskill-Bond Amendment to the Federal Aviation Act
  • Filed and won a motion to dismiss in federal district court in a case in which the US Airlines Pilots Association sued US Airways for violation of the Railway Labor Act, including bad faith bargaining.  U.S. Airlines Pilots Ass’n v. U.S. Airways, 859 F. Supp. 2d 283 (E.D.N.Y. 2012)
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