Michael G. Tierce

Mike is Co-Chair of Stevens & Lee’s Labor and Employment Department. He has been involved in labor-management relations, employment litigation and counseling both public and privately held employers for more than 35 years. He concentrates his practice in all aspects of labor and employment law and represents management clients including beverage producers, food and dairy production/distribution companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, health systems, gaming companies and commercial and other manufacturing organizations.

Mike negotiates collective bargaining agreements, handles labor arbitrations, injunction proceedings, organizing drives and other labor-related matters. He represents clients before the National Labor Relations Board and advises clients on corporate employment-related policies and practices. Mike also provides counseling and training services to clients in all areas of labor and employment law. He also handles administrative proceedings before the EEOC, state and local fair employment practice agencies and other government agencies. He also defends wrongful discharge, employment discrimination and other types of employee lawsuits.

For many years, Mike has represented major dairy and beverage processing and distribution companies. He also represents several manufacturers and distribution companies in various industries in all aspects of labor and employment law.

Mike represents two large national gaming companies at their numerous properties throughout the U.S., serving as lead negotiator in labor contracts with multiple unions including UNITE HERE, Teamsters, UAW, UFCW and others. He also represents these companies in a variety of employment matters, including in the defense of whistleblower claims and claims of discrimination in state and federal court, policy and handbook review and drafting, and employee and supervisor training, among other areas. He also serves as labor counsel for two large pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Mike also is chief labor counsel for a national health care organization whose 10,000 regional employees include registered nurses that have collective bargaining agreements. He also is counsel to several national major food production/distribution and manufacturing companies, negotiating collective bargaining agreements and handling related matters with several unions, including the Teamsters, Steelworkers, the UFCW, the IAM and others.

He has served as lead defense counsel in numerous employment actions for companies located throughout the East Coast, and has obtained several defense verdicts for employers in discrimination cases that have gone to trial. He served as lead defense counsel in obtaining summary judgment in federal court in a same-sex sexual harassment case for a major soft drink company. That case was a case of first impression and was affirmed on appeal by the Third Circuit.

A frequent lecturer and writer, Mike has spoken before a variety of organizations and trade groups on labor and employment topics. He has been a contributing author to the annual update of the Pennsylvania Employment Law Guide and for The Developing Labor Law. Mike also writes quarterly articles on current trends in employment law for the Interior Finish Contractors Association’s newsletter and has been a panelist at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service’s Annual Arbitration Symposium. He also has served as an Adjunct Professor of Trial Advocacy at Rutgers-Camden School of Law.

Affiliations

• Philadelphia Bar Association
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• American Bar Association

Recognition

As published in Philadelphia magazine, Mike was recognized as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer in 2010 through 2020 and 2023 by being selected by his peers as among the top 5 percent of lawyers in Pennsylvania. He also has been named to The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of employment law and labor law since 2015.