Our Attorneys
Joseph Guerrieri, Jr.
Joseph Guerrieri began his legal career as a law clerk to a Superior Court Judge in Washington, D.C. and was thereafter appointed an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia where he served in the criminal, appellate and civil divisions. While a federal prosecutor, Mr. Guerrieri taught trial practice in the Trial Advocacy Program of the United States Department of Justice.
Upon leaving government service, Mr. Guerrieri entered the private practice of law and, in 1985, founded Guerrieri, Bartos & Roma, P.C., a nationally recognized law firm specializing in labor and employment law primarily in the airline and railroad industries as well as in complex litigation throughout the United States.
In addition to an active trial and appellate court practice, Mr. Guerrieri has assisted the firm’s labor union clients in the negotiations of national collective bargaining agreements for, among others, the pilots at Delta Airlines and the ground employees at American, United, Southwest Airlines and the former Northwest, TWA, and US Airways. He assisted in the negotiations of several employee stock ownership and profit sharing plans in the airline industry. He has represented labor organizations and their members in several airline mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcies.
He has represented various rail unions before a number of Presidential Emergency Boards appointed by the President of the United States to investigate labor-management disputes that threaten to interrupt interstate commerce. He also serves as co-counsel to the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust, a multi-billion dollar pension fund for the benefit of retired rail employees and their beneficiaries.
Mr. Guerrieri counsels a number of labor organizations on compliance with Federal laws and has served as parliamentarian at various international union conventions. In 2001, by agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the 700,000-member Laborers’ International Union of North America (“LIUNA”) appointed Mr. Guerrieri as the independent Elections Officer. In that capacity he investigated and decided local, intermediate and international union election protests from LIUNA members throughout the United States and Canada. He was thereafter appointed LIUNA Independent Hearing Officer to hear and decide disciplinary and trusteeship cases.
Mr. Guerrieri has published and lectured on a variety of litigation, labor and employment law issues. He was a Visiting Professor of Labor and Employment Law in Russia at Vladivostok State University of Economics and Services. He has served as a delegate and counsel to U.S. delegations to the International Transportation Federation Congresses in London, Madrid, Florence, and New Delhi. He was elected a founding fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has served as a Labor Co-Chair of the Airline and Railroad Labor Law Committee and the Union Administration Committee of the American Bar Association. For a number of years, he served as the IAM designated Director to the Hawaiian Airlines Board of Directors. He received the highest Martindale and Hubbell, AV rating from his peers and is listed as a Washington D.C. Super Lawyer.
Mr. Guerrieri is a member of the District of Columbia bar. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and his Juris Doctorate degree “with honors” from George Washington University Law School.
Contact: jguerrieri@geclaw.com
Jeffrey A. Bartos
Jeff Bartos has represented labor unions, their members and officers, as well as employees and consumers for over 25 years. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Columbia University in 1987; his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1990, where he was awarded the school’s Colby Townsend Memorial Prize; and his L.L.M. (Advocacy) from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992.
Mr. Bartos represents labor unions in a wide range of litigation in both the trial and appellate courts, under the Railway Labor Act, the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, ERISA, Title VII, the False Claims Act, and the Bankruptcy Code. He litigated the first case establishing the scope of the McCaskill-Bond Amendment, providing for seniority integration in airline mergers. He has conducted federal jury trials in cases involving a union’s duty of fair representation, Title VII, and the Air Carrier Access Act. He secured the maximum available federal punitive damage verdict in a pregnancy-discrimination jury trial. He has successfully represented airline mechanics in multiple FAA investigations and emergency license revocation proceedings, securing favorable NTSB rulings restoring mechanics’ full rights. He has represented union officers in federal Inspector General investigations. Mr. Bartos has also conducted numerous emergency federal court proceedings involving the “status quo” obligations of the Railway Labor Act, and represented airline unions during every recent major airline bankruptcy, on creditors’ committees, retiree committees, and in litigation.
Outside of court, he has conducted many substantial arbitrations in the airline industry, involving scope, furlough protection, successorship, and seniority integration. For over a decade, Mr. Bartos was also actively involved in resolving internal union election disputes within the Laborers’ International Union of North America (“LIUNA”). He served as the Deputy Elections Officer for LIUNA’s 2006 and 2011 International Conventions and has conducted training sessions for local unions in how to conduct a local union election.
Mr. Bartos represents individual World Bank employees in proceedings before the World Bank Administrative Tribunal.
In addition to his labor and employment law work, Mr. Bartos has represented plaintiffs in numerous consumer class actions. He has served on several plaintiffs’ Executive Committees and played a key role in securing what was then the largest indirect purchaser-class action settlement in U.S. history. He is a member of the Legal Network for Gender Equity; has worked pro bono on adoption and custody cases in the District of Columbia courts; and is on the pro bono panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Mr. Bartos is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the American Bar Association’s Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee, of which he is a past Union Co-Chair. He previously served on the Steering Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the DC Bar.
Mr. Bartos currently serves as a member of the D.C. Court of Appeals’ Committee on Unauthorized Practice of Law, and the Yale Law School Association Executive Committee.
Selected Presentations:
“The Lawyer’s Role(s) in Internal Union Elections: Planning, Trouble-Shooting and Dispute Resolution”, DC Bar (2011) (with Elizabeth A. Roma)
“Arbitration Delay—Compelling Arbitration, Expedited and Alternative Procedures”, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (2011)
“Do Numbers Lie? Statistical Evidence in Employment Litigation”, DC Bar (2011) (moderator)
“Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards under the Railway Labor Act”, National Academy of Arbitrators Annual Meeting (2010)
“Where Have All the Major Disputes Gone?”, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (2010)
“Bankruptcy: Recent Court Decisions on 1113 Rejection”, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (2007)
Contact: jbartos@geclaw.com
Elizabeth A. Roma
Beth Roma has advocated on behalf of workers since 2000. Ms. Roma went to law school to pursue a career in the labor movement and graduated from the Washington College of Law at American University in 2004 (J.D., cum laude). Shortly after graduating from law school, Ms. Roma started as an associate with the firm, and became a principal in 2011. Her practice focuses on a wide-variety of labor and employment law issues, including matters arising under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, the Railway Labor Act, Employment Retirement Income Security Act, the federal duty of fair representation, as well as various civil rights laws and other employment statutes. Ms. Roma’s litigation experience includes representing clients at the trial and appellate levels of both state and federal courts. She also represents clients in arbitration proceedings and before government agencies, including the Department of Labor, the National Mediation Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She also often conducts compliance training, including sexual harassment training for employers.
Ms. Roma graduated from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. in 2000 (B.A., summa cum laude). During college, she worked as a full-time intern for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. After graduating from college, Ms. Roma worked as an organizer for 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, advocating at the national, state, and local levels on behalf of low-wage/low-income working families. During law school, Ms. Roma worked as a law clerk for the Laborers’ International Union of North America; the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; and the Appellate Court Branch, Division of Enforcement Litigation, for the National Labor Relations Board. She also served on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law.
Ms. Roma is active in her community and is a regular volunteer attorney with various workers’ rights groups. She is a frequent panelist at professional conferences, including the ABA’s Labor and Employment Law Section Conference, the ABA’s Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee, the ALI CLE Airline and Railroad Labor and Employment Law Conference, the AFL-CIO’s Lawyers Coordinating Committee, and the Peggy Browning Fund. Ms. Roma is the former Union Co-Chair of the ABA’s Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee and a Senior Editor for the ABA’s Railway Labor Act treatise.
Ms. Roma is a member of the Bars for the State of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia as well as the Bars of numerous federal appellate and district courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. Roma holds a Masters of Arts degree in International Relations from American University (M.A., 2004).
Journal Publications:
“The Interplay Between Free Speech Rights and Union Self-Governance: The Free Speech Rights of Elected Union Officers under Title I of the LMRDA,” 30 ABA J. Lab. & Emp. L. 1 (2015)
“Permissible, Protected, and Preferable: Intermittent Strikes under the Railway Labor Act,” 25 ABA J. Lab. & Emp. L. 259 (2010) (co-author, Carmen R. Parcelli)
“Mandatory Arbitration Clauses in Employment Contracts: The Need for Meaningful Judicial Review,” 12 Am. U. J. Gender Soc. Pol’y & L. 519 (2004)
Selected Presentations:
Sexual Harassment Training for Employers, 2000-Present
“Representation Matters Before the National Mediation Board,” ALI CLE Program, Airline and Railroad Labor and Employment Law Conference (Washington, D.C., 2018)
“Judicial Enforcement of the Railway Labor Act and “Unfair Labor Practices”: Is There ‘Protected Activity’ Under the RLA?,” ALI CLE Program, Airline and Railroad Labor and Employment Law Conference (Washington, D.C., 2018)
“When Things Heat Up Around The Water Cooler: Regulating Employee Speech,” Moderator, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (Coral Gables, FL, 2018)
“Rail And Airline Service Providers: Now, Who Has Jurisdiction?,” Moderator, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (Coral Gables, FL, 2018)
“Rail and Airline Service Providers,” Moderator, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (Sonoma, CA, 2017)
“Final Consolidation in the Airline Industry,” Moderator, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (St. Pete’s Beach, FL, 2016)
“Complex Arbitration Under the RLA: Tips from Advocates and Arbitrators on How to Make Your Case,” Moderator, ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (St. Pete’s Beach, FL, 2016)
“RLA Grievance and Arbitration Procedures,” ALI CLE Program, Airline and Railroad Labor and Employment Law (Washington, D.C., 2017)
“Key Differences and Similarities between the Railway Labor Act and Its Younger Cousin, the National Labor Relations Act,” ABA Labor and Employment Law Section Conference (Washington, D.C., 2017)
“Negotiation, Mediation and Arbitration Under the Railway Labor Act,” ABA Labor and Employment Law Section Conference (Chicago, IL, 2016)
“Grievance and Arbitration Procedures under the RLA,” ALI CLE Program, Airline and Railroad Labor and Employment Law (Washington, D.C., 2015)
“First Contract Issues under the Railway Labor Act,” ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (New Orleans, LA, 2015)
“Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ Requirements: Surprise, You’re a Federal Contractor,” ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (San Diego, CA, 2014)
“Transit Employees: Section 13(c) and the Preservation of Collective Bargaining Rights,” ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (San Diego, CA, 2014)
“National Mediation Board Representation Issues: American Airlines v. NMB,” ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (Charleston, SC, 2013)
“Railway Industry Bargaining: Presidential Emergency Board 243,” ABA Railway and Airline Labor Law Committee Conference (Laguna Beach, CA, 2012)
“Internal Union Elections: Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them and Appeals to the Department of Labor,” AFL-CIO’s Lawyers Coordinating Committee National Conference (Chicago, IL, 2012)
“The Lawyer’s Role(s) in Internal Union Elections: Planning, Trouble-Shooting and Dispute Resolution”, DC Bar (2011) (with Jeffrey A. Bartos)
“The Federal Duty of Fair Representation,” AFL-CIO’s Lawyers Coordinating Committee Mid-Atlantic Meeting (Washington, D.C., 2009)
Peggy Browning Fund National Law Students Workers’ Rights Conference, Panelist, 2009-Present
“Internal Union Elections: Training for Election Judges, Officers and Candidates,” 2006-Present
Contact: eroma@geclaw.com
John J. Grunert, Senior Counsel
John Grunert joined Guerrieri, Bartos & Roma, P.C., as an associate in 2018. His practice focuses on representing labor unions under the Railway Labor Act, the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and other federal labor and employment laws. Mr. Grunert has handled federal court litigation concerning RLA major and minor disputes, the duty of fair representation, discrimination and retaliation, agency statutory authority, and the Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as grievance arbitration hearings, and NLRB charges.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Grunert served as Associate Counsel to an International Union of the AFL-CIO, where he handled contract interpretation and discipline arbitrations, trusteeship hearings, and mediation and arbitration of AFL-CIO internal disputes. Mr. Grunert also worked as a Field Attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in New York, where he litigated a number of cases in federal court, as well as before administrative law judges, and the NLRB on appeal.
Mr. Grunert went to law school to study labor and employment law in order to promote the rights of unions and workers. He received his J.D. from New York Law School cum laude in 2012. During law school Mr. Grunert worked as a law clerk for a labor union in New York, completed a summer clerkship at an International Union in Washington, D.C., and interned in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In 2009, Mr. Grunert graduated with a B.S. from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. While at Cornell Mr. Grunert worked for a program that assisted migrant agricultural workers in upstate New York to gain access to legal services and education. Mr. Grunert also completed a semester at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Grunert is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New York, New Jersey, the U.S. Supreme Court, and several U.S. Appellate and District Courts