PETER L. FRATTARELLI is a member of Archer and Greiner’s Labor and Employment Department. He regularly represents management and employers in labor and employment litigation and proceedings. Peter has extensive experience defending employers and individuals against harassment and discrimination lawsuits. In addition, he has defended employers in similar claims filed with state and federal administrative agencies. These include claims for race, gender, sex, national origin and age discrimination. His management defense experience has been in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from unlawful discipline through wrongful termination.

Peter’s litigation experience also includes an emphasis on defending against two developing claims under employment law, filed by disabled employees and by “whistleblowers.” He has handled numerous cases defending employers against claims of disability discrimination or failure to accommodate the needs of disabled persons, including several cases that sought to extend the disability protection laws against employers and places of public accommodation. Peter has also defended numerous whistleblower lawsuits and administrative claims, where employees have sought to take advantage of the ever-expanding rights offered to employees by state and federal whistleblower laws.

Peter also has represented management, and provided advice to employers, in a number of different contexts, ranging from day-to-day wage and salary issues up to actions and proceedings involving labor organizations. This includes the defense and prosecution of unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board as well as representing employers involved in union election campaigns. He has also successfully represented employers in proceedings in state and federal court seeking to enjoin union picketing.

In addition, Peter’s labor law experience includes the defense of numerous individual employee grievances filed before the American Arbitration Association. As a result, he has successfully represented management at many labor arbitration proceedings. He also has negotiated for, and counseled, management during union collective bargaining agreements for private sector employers.

Peter also has significant experience with the chemical industry, both in his work experience before his legal career as well as afterwards. Peter has effectively combined his engineering degree and oil refining background to assist his clients in employment, commercial and environmental cases. This has included his own analysis of the merits of cases by examination of the chemical and production processes at large chemical plants, without the need for expert testimony. Also, Peter has represented management in multiple party commercial and environmental litigation, in federal and state courts in the Philadelphia Tri-State area. Peter also has acted as common counsel for multiple parties in landfill cleanup litigation, and as a result participated in exhaustive factual investigations of these complex claims.

Peter is also a partner in Archer & Greiner’s Media and Communications Law Department, where he assists in the representation of the press against claims for defamation and employment privacy claims. Peter’s emphasis in this Department is in the litigation of these complex claims, before state and federal courts.

Peter has been involved in several important decisions and judgments, involving significant damages or complex legal issues. Some examples include:

* Received favorable and novel reported decision from New Jersey Federal District Court interpreting provisions of a Federal law offering long term care insurance to employees and retirees, which rejected a retiree’s claim that the Federal law violated disability discrimination laws.
* Received favorable and novel reported decision from New Jersey Federal District Court upholding protections of attorney-client privilege in employer in-house investigation of discrimination complaints.
* Received favorable decision from New Jersey Federal District Court dismissing age and disability discrimination claims of former employees involving comments not previously addressed by the Federal Courts in the applicable Circuit .
* Received a favorable decision from the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in the defense of a defamation and privacy claim, where the Court took the unusual step of dismissing this fact-sensitive case at virtually the outset of the case.
* Represented citizens group in election redistricting case in Pennsylvania, by stepping in as appellate counsel and obtaining reversal of unfavorable lower court judgment, on appeal to Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. As part of this case, assisted local school district with unprecedented re-districting trials, a special general election and the redrawing of thirty-plus year old election boundaries.
* Represented a multi-state chemical company in binding commercial arbitration arising out of the sale of chemical plants and the alleged breach for the failure to provide several promised chemical supply contracts. Assisted client in receiving arbitration award in excess of $10,000,000 following weeks of hearings.

Peter is also currently a member of the following legal organizations: the National Employment Law Committee of the Libel Defense Resource Center, the Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section, the Sidney Reitman Inn of Court (an Inn of Court specializing in labor and employment law), the Camden County Bar Association’s Employment Law Committee, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Justinian Society (for attorneys of Italian descent), and the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Human Resources Law Committee. As evidence of his technical roots, Peter is also a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He also volunteers his time with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, and annually acts as the Camden County Coordinator for New Jersey’s State-sponsored high school mock trial competition, working with students, teachers and advisors for nearly one dozen local high schools.

Peter has written on several topics, including “Individual Liability Under CEPA: A Crack in the Foundation” (New Jersey Labor and Employment Law Quarterly, 2005); “Commentary: Finally, a Supreme Court Decision Management Lawyers Can Love” (New Jersey Law Journal, October, 2002); and “Federal Discovery Rules Dramatically Change” (Corporate Counsellor, December, 1993). Peter has also appeared several times on local radio and television programs to discuss employment law issues, and has been quoted as a labor and employment law expert in .

Peter has also spoken extensively at legal seminars over his career. Over the last several years, he has spoken on several dozen occasions, before legal and industry organizations on a variety of labor and employment topics. For example, Peter has spoken to business persons, human resource professionals and attorneys on labor and employment law issues, in speeches sponsored by the following local and national organizations: Garden State Society of Human Resource Professionals (2002 – 2004); South Jersey Chamber of Commerce (2004); New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education (2003-2004); Camden County Bar Association (2002 – 2004); Pennsylvania Bar Institute (2000; 2003); National Business Institute (2004); Council on Education in Management (2002 – 2005); Lorman Educational Services (2003 – 2005); Sterling Education Services (2004 – 2005); Southern NJ Shore Society of Human Resource Professionals (2002); and the Delaware Valley Chapter of the American Corporate Counsel Association (2001). He has spoken on a variety of legal topics, including recent speeches titled: “Hiring and Drug Testing Decisions for Employers”; “The ABCs of Overtime Law”; “Recordkeeping Requirements for Employers”; “Emerging Trends: Uses of Whistleblower and Retaliation Lawsuits”; “What Every Employer Needs to Know About the Occupational Health and Safety Act”; “Advising the Employer Client in Delaware”; “Avoiding Pitfalls of Exempt and Non-Exempt Employees”; “Employee Handbooks: Sword Against You/Shield to Protect You”; “Internal Investigations: Pitfalls and Erosion of the Attorney-Client Privilege,” “Workplace Violence: Taking A Collaborative Approach” and “Time Off in Pennsylvania: State and Federal Laws On Employee Leave, Vacations and Holidays.”

Archer and Greiner, P.C. is a full-service firm with over 120 attorneys, serving its clients from its offices in Philadelphia, PA, Wilmington, DE and in Haddonfield, Princeton and Flemington, NJ.