Overview
Pawel Binczyk is an experienced litigator, counselor, and crisis response professional who represents businesses in labor and employment matters involving complex wage and hour, discrimination, regulatory investigations, and labor relations issues. Adept at defense strategy and risk assessment, Pawel strives to provide clients with clear, actionable advice to navigate tough situations and reach outcomes that align with organizational goals. He has successfully tried dozens of high stakes jury trials.
Pawel’s labor relations practice includes guiding employers through union campaigns, negotiations and collective bargaining, and representing them in grievances and unfair labor practice charges.
Related to his labor practice, Pawel also advises public-facing employers on strategies for managing crisis communications and navigating difficult public scenarios. Pawel is skilled in managing the diverse prevention, defense, and communication requirements of organizations that engage regularly with the public.
His clients have included hotels, retailers, restaurants, manufacturers, automotive dealerships, logistics companies, technology companies, factories, paper mills, property managers, non-profits, museums, universities, school districts and the United States Army and National Guard.
In addition to his labor and employment law practice, Pawel is a sought-after advisor on Maine and New Hampshire liquor law. Pawel helps companies procure liquor licenses and provides advice and guidance for ongoing liquor law regulatory compliance. Pawel assists a wide range of clients on liquor law issues, but these matters are of particular importance to companies for whom liquor licensing is essential, including restaurants, retail, hotel and alcohol distribution. For these clients, Pawel’s liquor law knowledge complements his advice and representation on employment and labor law.
At the outset of his legal career, Pawel served as an active-duty Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army JAG Corps for six years, working with the Army domestically in the United States, and internationally in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Germany. While on active duty, Pawel supervised hundreds of felony criminal investigations, with a particular focus on serious violent felonies and special victims cases. He tried over 50 cases to verdict and was later selected to oversee the Army’s prosecution of sexual assault cases and to train junior counsel for such matters. He collaborated with stakeholders in law enforcement, command, and victim advocacy communities to help create the Army’s first Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Resource Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA, a pilot program to provide holistic services to survivors that has since been expanded and emulated more broadly.
Pawel continues to serve as a Judge Advocate for the Maine Army National Guard on a part-time basis, acting as the deputy general counsel of the state’s Army National Guard component.
Pawel applies his background in felony and special victims trial advocacy through active engagement in pro bono legal matters through the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project Domestic Violence Panel. His sustained pro bono work has earned him repeated recognition as Katahdin Counsel as authorized by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Pawel is licensed as a Special Victim Counsel by the JAG Legal Center & School, and CornerHouse certified for its globally-recognized Child Forensic Interview Protocol.
Before joining Fisher Phillips, Pawel was a shareholder with the Portland office of one of Maine’s largest law firms, and was an associate with a Maine employment law boutique.