Jackson Lewis

Mark A. de Bernardo is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. Region office of Jackson Lewis LLP.  He is Practice Group Leader of the firm’s Drug Testing and Substance Abuse Management and Alternative Dispute Resolution practice groups and Co-Leader of its Government Relations practice group.

Mr. de Bernardo concentrates his practice on employment litigation and counseling, government relations, and workplace drug-testing issues, but also represents employers on senior executive personnel actions, labor-management relations, and alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”).  He also has extensive experience in the management of employment-related class actions.

Mr. de Bernardo has provided legal representation to more than 30 Fortune 200 corporations; five federal executive branch agencies; the states of Kansas, Louisiana, and California; the governments of Japan, Spain, and the Bahamas; and nearly 20 national trade associations.

In regard to senior executive personnel actions, Mr. de Bernardo is in demand regarding the investigation, adverse employment action, negotiation of severance, and litigation of employment claims by highly placed corporate executives, especially in the petrochemical and publishing industries.  

In heading up the Jackson Lewis Government Relations practice, Mr. de Bernardo has testified more than 40 times before Congress and various federal and state regulatory agencies and legislative committees on employment and labor law issues.  He has submitted or participated in 11 amici curiae briefs to the United States Supreme Court, and nearly 30 amici briefs overall to various courts on behalf of trade associations, business coalitions, and corporate clients. 

Mr. de Bernardo is the founder (in 2000), and serves as the Executive Director and President of the Council for Employment Law Equity, a national coalition advocating fair and appropriate policy-making in the employment area.  In the past two years, Mr. de Bernardo has testified in Congress five times on behalf of the CELE on arbitration, criminal-background check, and civil rights issues, and on Supreme Court employment law decisions.  The CELE also regularly files amicus curiae briefs and comments during federal agency rule-makings.

Mr. de Bernardo is the founder (in 1989), and serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace, a national coalition dedicated to promoting and preserving the rights of employers and employees in effective substance-abuse-prevention programs, and he served as the President of the Foundation for Drug Education and Awareness.  Mr. de Bernardo is the author of four state drug-testing laws, and the only workplace drug-testing law endorsed by the President’s Commission on Model State Drug Laws.  Among the many clients he has represented on drug-testing issues are the National Basketball Association, the U. S. House of Representatives, and more than 20 Fortune 200 corporations.

In his role as Practice Group Leader for the ADR practice, which includes nearly 20 lawyers in the firm, he drafts ADR policies, audits ADR programs, and counsels employers on ADR and arbitration issues.  He also plays a significant role in the national policy consideration of these issues. 

Mr. de Bernardo is the author or co-author of 18 books on employment and labor law topics.
 
Mr. de Bernardo is a frequent speaker at conferences, and has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Crossfire, Larry King Live, and the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news.  Mr. de Bernardo has been quoted in such publications as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Mr. de Bernardo is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and is listed among the best labor lawyers in Virginia by Chambers USA. He is active in a number of professional and community organizations.  Mr. de Bernardo has served as Special Counsel for Domestic Policy and Director of Labor Law for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.  He was appointed, and twice reappointed, by the Japanese government as the American management representative to the Japan Institute of Labour. He also has contributed chapters to several ABA publications, and has been a guest lecturer at the U. S. Army War College, NYU, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, George Washington, American, and the University of Kansas.
 
Mr. de Bernardo’s community activities include serving on the Board of Directors of the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales.  He has been a member of the Gonzaga College High School Fathers’ Club, and has served on The Hunger Project’s Global Investment Committee, and on the executive committee of the Lido Civic and Community Club.

Mr. de Bernardo is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the U. S. Supreme Court Bar, and has been active in the American Bar Association and its Committee on Practice & Procedure under the NLRA. He was awarded a B.A., cum laude, from Marquette University in 1976, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1979.

Published Works

 Honors, Awards and Pro Bono Activity