Practice Locations
- Rochester, NY
Joseph A. Gawlowicz is a Senior Counsel in Tully Rinckey PLLC’s Rochester office, where he focuses his practice on federal and state labor and employment counseling, litigation, and alternative dispute resolution, as well as general civil litigation, complex litigation, and appeals.
Joseph is passionate about solving problems and conflicts for all stakeholders in the contemporary workplace and has comprehensive knowledge of and experience with private and public sector individual employee, management, and labor union rights. He has represented a wide range of clients across Western and Central New York state over issues involving discrimination and retaliation; civil rights; employment contracts, discipline and termination; employee benefits; wage and hour issues; civil service; workers’ compensation; collective bargaining; and contract and disciplinary grievance arbitration.
Joseph has successfully practiced before trial and appellate courts in New York state’s Fourth Judicial Department and the New York Court of Appeals, as well as the U.S. District Court for the Western and Northern Districts of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He has also regularly appeared before the New York State Division of Human Rights; the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); and the New York Public Employment Relations Board.
Joseph has effectively represented numerous public and private sector labor unions, individual union members, and union leadership in collective bargaining negotiations, disciplinary matters, unit management issues, unfair labor practice cases, litigation, and arbitration. He has served as counsel to client labor organizations including the municipal teachers of a major city school district; the police and fire department of a major city; a regional transit authority; various construction trade union locals; state public employees and other civil service locals; a regional union representing diverse manufacturing and service workers and its health center serving members and retirees; and an international union representing the interests of a diverse membership of public and private sector shipping and other workers. He has also served as counsel to ERISA multiemployer pension, health, and other union benefit funds across Western and Central New York. And he has made numerous appearances as collective bargaining lead negotiator and party advocate in mediations and labor arbitrations.
Joseph enjoys broadening his practice and sharing his knowledge with others and has a deep interest in developing technology and the law.
Joseph earned his juris doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law, Buffalo, New York. Prior to law school Joseph achieved his master’s degree in information technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He will complete his second master’s degree, in cybersecurity at RIT focusing on computing security law & regulation, data privacy, and governance, risk and compliance, in May 2025. He earned his master’s degree in information technology and bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Joseph possesses significant knowledge of state, federal, and international laws, regulations, policies, and frameworks for information security and data privacy. He has taught a number of courses in cybersecurity, web application development and design, and photojournalism as adjunct professor in the College of Applied Science and Technology; the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences; the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences; and the Global Cybersecurity Institute at RIT. In 2021-22, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Joseph taught, led, and evolved RIT’s live and asynchronous online cybersecurity bootcamp, a Congressionally-funded program preparing diverse, novice learners, including many deaf and hard-of-hearing students, for entry-level careers in cybersecurity as part of the university’s effort to reskill/upskill individuals impacted by job loss due to the pandemic.
Joseph’s deep and broad experience as a labor arbitration advocate for management and labor led to his contribution as Management Rights Chapter Editor in the 2024 edition of “Elkouri & Elkouri: How Arbitration Works,” the premier treatise and authoritative guide on labor/management alternative dispute resolution published by ABA/Bloomberg Law.
Before starting his legal career, Joseph served for nearly nine years in the U.S. Navy as a leading military photojournalist. He deployed in 1990-91 to the Persian Gulf to visually document all aspects of the liberation of Kuwait in Operations Desert Shield/Storm and in 1992-93 to Somalia and Eastern Africa to document the Operation Restore Hope famine relief mission for the military and nation archives. His military photojournalism has been published worldwide, including in the history of the Navy in the Gulf War published in 2001 by the Naval Institute Press entitled “Shield and Sword: The United States Navy and the Persian Gulf War,” by Edward J. Marolda and Robert J. Schneller, Jr.
Joseph is a member of the Monroe County Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Disabled American Veterans.
Joseph lives in Brighton, NY, with his daughter and two dogs. He enjoys spending time with and cooking for family and friends; photography; movies; and traveling.
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Other Achievements, Community Involvement, and Contributions