CWA Mourns Former General Counsel

Patrick M. Scanlon, the CWA general counsel who won a $60 million maternity leave settlement on behalf of workers at a former AT&T subsidiary, died on April 4. He was 71.

Scanlon, the third general counsel in the union's history, retired in 2005 after 25 years of service to CWA.

"Patrick's roots in CWA go back to our founding days," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "He worked with the Adair brothers, in their firm, then came to CWA as general counsel. He was quiet but insightful, careful but always helpful. He hired brilliant attorneys to work for us and their work lives on today as part of his legacy. He was physically strong whether running or working; he loved his family, his union and life itself."

CWA General Counsel Pat Scanlon at the 2005 convention, his last before retirement.

In what Scanlon considered his greatest achievement, CWA brought a class action suit against Western Electric, the manufacturing subsidiary of the old AT&T, in 1991. The company had been requiring pregnant women to take unpaid maternity leave towards the end of their pregnancies; it only gave female employees 30 days credit toward their seniority — while other employees on disability leave received full credit — and offered no employment guarantee when they returned from maternity leave.

As a result of the $60 million settlement, 13,000 telephone company workers received back pay and seniority credit. At the time, it was the largest cash settlement ever reached by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Scanlon devoted his entire legal career to organized labor and workers' rights. After receiving his law degree from the Stetson College of Law, he immediately dove into labor and employment law, specializing in the representation of unions. He rose to become president of the firm that bore his name — Adair, Scanlon and McHugh.

In 1980, Scanlon was named associate general counsel for CWA District 3 in Atlanta. Shortly after Morton Bahr was elected CWA president in 1985, one of his first appointments was the naming of Scanlon as his general counsel.

"This was new for CWA as for many years we had a law firm act as general counsel," Bahr said. "Pat fulfilled the role brilliantly, from his role as general counsel to the union and legal advisor to the president. I knew I could always rely on him to provide the correct path for us around any legal question we were faced with."

He advised CWA leaders on the legal conduct of strikes, contract details and grievances and supervised all aspects of CWA arbitration, trying more than 200 cases each year. For a number of years he also served as the CWA convention's parliamentarian.

"He was a dedicated and committed advocate for the cause of working people and an important mentor to many labor lawyers at CWA and around the country," said CWA's current general counsel, Mary K. O'Melveny, who was hired by Scanlon to work at CWA headquarters in 1989. "We are all very saddened by this untimely loss."

In addition to his work at CWA, Scanlon served on the board of directors of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee and the Lawyers Advisory Panel, a committee of general counsels of major AFL-CIO unions. He was also a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and served as co-chair of the American Bar Association Law Section Council's Equal Employment Opportunity and International Labor Law committees.