Fisher Phillips Continues Momentum in Dallas with Addition of Jonathan Elifson

Fisher Phillips, an international labor and employment law firm representing employers, is pleased to announce that Jonathan Elifson has joined the firm as Of Counsel in Dallas. His arrival continues the firm’s momentum in the Dallas market after recently welcoming Senior Advisor of Government Relations and Communications, Gregory Zerzan, and Of Counsel, Liz Drumm.

Jonathan most recently served as Assistant Attorney General in the Transportation Division of the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, where he managed the Division’s employment docket. As a first chair litigator, he handled employment disputes on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation and served as counsel of record for cases involving employment discrimination and premises liability. Jonathan also handled a variety of other employment law matters brought before administrative bodies, including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Texas Work Force Commission. Prior to this, Jonathan was at a prestigious Texas law firm, where he was Managing Counsel of the Labor & Employment Law Department, responsible for handling all litigation arising from state and federal labor and employment law statutes. 

Jonathan is also known for handling traditional labor law matters with significant National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) litigation experience and system-wide Railway Labor Act (RLA) arbitrations. In fact, he was recently appointed by the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law Faculty to teach a course emphasizing the RLA as an Adjunct Lecturer.    

His labor relations experience started after law school at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Fort Worth, where he served as trial and appellate counsel in unfair labor practice cases. After that, he became in-house counsel for the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association, where he litigated and arbitrated a variety of labor relations matters on behalf of its members. Jonathan was then hired by the Allied Pilots Association where he played a hybrid role, representing both the employer and union sides during his tenure. On the employer side, he worked with the Executive Director on issues including contract interpretation, responding to and settling grievances, representing management before the NLRB, and serving as the chief spokesperson for management in negotiating a successor collective bargaining agreement involving contract administrators and office/clerical employees. On the union side, Jonathan served as an advocate for contractual and disciplinary grievances involving the interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement between approximately 15,000 pilots and a major U.S. airline headquartered in Fort Worth.

At Fisher Phillips, Jonathan will combine his extensive litigation and labor relations experience to defend employers in a variety of matters, ranging from complex employment disputes to accusations of violating federal labor laws and everything in between. His ultimate objective will be to partner with clients to create and implement effective strategies to address the unique business challenges presented by labor and employment laws.

Jonathan earned his Juris Doctor from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where he was the proud recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship. And he is expected later this year to earn his Master of Laws in International Dispute Resolution (Arbitration) from Queen Mary University of London School of Law, Centre for Commercial Law Studies.