Paul Salvatore provides strategic labor and employment law advice to companies, boards of directors/trustees, senior executives and general counsel in such areas as labor-management relations, litigation, alternative dispute resolution, international labor and employment issues, and corporate transactions.
He negotiates major collective bargaining agreements in several industries, including real estate and construction. Paul represents the NYC real estate industry’s multi-employer organization, the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB), and its principal trade organization, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). In 2023, he helped the RAB reach a new collective bargaining agreement with SEIU Local 32BJ, covering 20,000 commercial building employees, enabling the industry to adapt its labor practices to tenants’ post-COVID utilization of office space, including that caused by remote/hybrid work.
Paul has long represented construction employers and developers, such as the Related Companies, Cement League, Association of Master Painters and others. He negotiates Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s), such as for Related (enabling the construction of Hudson Yards), and presently for Gateway Development Corporation (GDC) in building the New York-New Jersey train tunnels, the largest infrastructure project in America. City & State magazine has named him one of the most powerful lawyers in New York for his work in this sector.
Paul also tries arbitrations and litigations, and argues appeals, arising from labor-management relationships. He argued and won before the U.S. Supreme Court 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett. In a 5-4 decision of importance to employers, the Court held that a collective bargaining agreement explicitly requiring unionized employees to arbitrate employment discrimination claims is enforceable, modifying 35 years of labor law. Unions and employers now negotiate “Pyett clauses” in collective bargaining. He has argued and won federal circuit court cases reversing the National Labor Relations Board’s findings against employers, including in the D.C. and Fifth Circuits.
Paul represents universities and colleges in their labor and employment relations, including in the currently active areas of unionization and collective bargaining with graduate students, post-docs, undergraduates, athletes and adjunct faculty. Among other schools he has worked with are Yale, Duke, Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis and Caltech. Paul pioneered innovative non-NLRB graduate student union election agreements at Cornell, Brown and Syracuse Universities.
An honors graduate of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and the Cornell Law School, Paul served eight years on Cornell’s Board of Trustees, including on its Executive Committee. He subsequently was elected Trustee Emeritus and Presidential Councilor. He presently serves as a Trustee Member of the Board of Fellows of Weill Cornell Medicine, as well as on the Law School and ILR Deans’ Advisory Councils. In 2002, ILR awarded him the Judge William B. Groat prize, the school’s highest honor.
At Proskauer, Paul was elected to its Executive Committee and served as co-chair of its global Labor & Employment Law Department, named during his tenure by The American Lawyer and Chambers USA as one of the premier U.S. practices. He is widely recognized as a leading U.S. labor and employment lawyer in such publications as Chambers Global and USA (Band 1), Legal 500 (“Hall of Fame”), and Best Lawyers in America (named 2025 NYC “Lawyer of the Year, Labor Law-Management”). The National Law Journal selected Paul as one of "The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers" – one of only three in the labor and employment law field. His peers elected him to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.
An active speaker and writer on labor and employment law issues, Paul’s recent publications include “One Dozen Years of Pyett: A Win for Unionized Workplace Dispute Resolution” in the American Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Journal (“ABA Journal”), Volume 36, Number 2 at 257, and “The PLA Alternative in an Increasingly Open Shop New York City Construction Market: The REBNY-BCTC Statement of Principles,” Volume 37 ABA Journal, Number 3 at 415. He is an Adjunct Professor at Cornell Law School, teaching a course in collective bargaining.
American Bar Association (Labor & Employment Law Section)
Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year: Labor Law – Management, New York City 2020, 2025
Best Lawyers in America 2005-2025
City & State Law Power 100 List 2020-2022
Lawdragon 500 Leading U.S. Corporate Employment Lawyers 2020-2025
Chambers USA: New York: Labor & Employment 2003-2024
Chambers Global: USA, Labor & Employment 2014-2023
Chambers USA: New York: Labor Relations (Spotlight) 2020-2024
New York Super Lawyers Top 100 2010
The National Law Journal “The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers”, 2010
Lawdragon & Human Resource Executive Top 100 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys 2010-2019
Lawdragon & Human Resource Executive Nation's 50 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys 2008
The Legal 500 United States Leading Lawyer 2017-2018
The Legal 500 United States: Hall of Fame 2019-2023
The Legal 500 United States: Labor & Employment: Labor & Employment Litigation 2009-2014
The Legal 500 United States: Labor & Employment: Labor-Management Relations 2007, 2012-2024 (Hall of Fame 2024)
The Legal 500 United States: Labor & Employment: Workplace & Employment Counseling 2007-2008
New York Super Lawyers 2010-2022
Guide to the World’s Leading Labour & Employment Lawyers
Fellow, College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
Judge William B. Groat Alumni Award, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, April 25, 2002