Bio

Robert S. Giolito

Welcome to my site, and I hope you find it useful!  I am a labor lawyer with a national practice representing local and international unions and their members in a wide variety of industries, particularly entertainment, hospitality, logistics, and related services.  I’ve been active since 1974, and  have represented both individual and institutional clients in many federal and state courts and before government agencies.  I am a member of the California and Georgia state bars..

My career began in 1974 in Atlanta as an associate with the labor law firm of Adair, Goldthwaite, Stanford & Daniel.  In 1977, I became a founding partner of the firm Stanford, Fagan & Giolito, which grew to become the preeminent labor and employment firm in the South. From 2002 to 2007, I served as General Counsel of the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.  After that, I returned to private practice, remaining in Los Angeles.  

I have litigated various individual employment matters, including wage and hour, wrongful termination, and discrimination claims, and individual employment contracts and deal memos.  I’ve helped creative talent, designers, agents, and content producers in rights negotiations, distribution agreements, privacy issues, and copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property claims.  My union practice is quite extensive, including major organizing campaigns, hiring hall administration, contract negotiations, grievance mediation and arbitration, strikes and boycotts, as well as internal union governance and merger issues.   For example, I represented the Screen Actors Guild in its successful merger with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to form SAG-AFTRA, the world’s largest entertainment union.

I am very active in professional activities that help to develop the law.  I am the former Co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Practice and Procedure under the National Labor Relations Act, and former Chair of the Labor and Employment Sections of the State Bar of Georgia and the Atlanta Bar Association.  I’ve also served on the Chairman’s Advisory Commission of the National Labor Relations Board.  I am  a Chapter Editor of How to Take a Case Before the NLRB published by Bloomberg BNA Books.  I frequently speak at national and regional conferences on labor and employment issues, including at the American Bar Association’s annual Conference on Labor and Employment Law and the annual meetings of the Practice and Procedure Committee.

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison in 1974, and from Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY, in 1971.  I was born and raised in New York City, lived for many years in Atlanta, and currently reside in Santa Monica, California.