Police Union Mourns
Loss of General Counsel Michael T. Leibig
He was small in physical stature, but a
giant in the law. He loomed large over every courtroom and every
bargaining table where he appeared. Michael T. Leibig was General Counsel
for the International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO and has earned
a reputation as one of the nation's foremost experts on labor law.
On July 17, he finally succumbed to
leukemia after a long and courageous struggle with the disease. Diagnosed
with a rare and incurable form of the disease in the late1980's, Mr.
Leibig continued to represent the International Union of Police
Associations, AFL-CIO and thousands of law enforcement officers for more
than twenty years relying on a keen intellect and strength of character
while courageously holding a debilitating disease at bay. Throughout his
career and despite his steadily failing health, he unflinchingly pressed
case after case to ensure maximum protection for American workers,
especially law enforcement officers, under the federal Fair Labor
Standards Act.
His greatest challenge came just this past
year when the U.S. Department of
Labor attempted to rewrite the Fair Labor Standards Act with rule
changes that would eliminate overtime pay for hundreds of thousands of
American workers including law enforcement, emergency medical personnel,
and other first responders.
Despite the physical challenges his health presented, Mr. Leibig developed
a keen, intricate, and highly detailed analysis of DOL's proposed rules
changes that laid the ground work that enabled Members of Congress to
garner sufficient support to protect significant portions of the law
enforcement and emergency personnel community against committed opponents.
His work also provided a base that brought the International Union of
Police Associations, the National Association of Police Organizations, and
the International Brotherhood of Police Officers under a single united
banner to protect the respective members'
wage base.
While other officers, such as sergeants and
lieutenants, are still at risk and the battle in Congress continues, his
seminal work will stand as a bedrock of protection for uncounted thousands
of emergency workers. It will also serve for years to come as the base
from which American workers will be able to defend themselves should some
of the proposed rules changes survive and men and women are forced into
court to protect their hard earned wages.
Mr. Leibig's seminal work on the FLSA
proposed rule changes is the final chapter in a distinguished legal career
beginning with his service in the Judge Advocates General Corps with the
United States Coast Guard where he earned the Coast Achievement Award.
Throughout his years as an advocate for law enforcement, a beautiful model
of the Coast Guard training ship "Eagle"
sat proudly in his office.
A partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Zwerdling, Paul,
Leibig, Kahn, Thompson & Wolley, Mr. Leibig was a 1971 graduate of the
University of Virginia Law School
and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where he
taught public sector labor relations, the termination of employment, labor
policy, and fiduciary responsibility. His service as an educator
earned him the Charles Faby Distinguished Professor Award in 1999.
In addition to numerous articles on public
employee benefit and pension issues, Mr. Leibig authored four basic texts
- Police Unions and the Law, Organizing Public Employees, The Fair Labor
Standards Act and Policing, and Policing Your Paycheck which continues to
serve as a guide for police officers on how to ensure fair compensation.
Committed to the deep belief that law
enforcement officers deserved quality representation he did not rest on
his laurels at the top of the labor law pyramid. Up to the very last of
his career, he frequently went back into the trenches in contract
negotiations for local units of the International Union of Police
Associations, three state organizations as well as successfully
representing individual officers who he believed would be denied
due process without expert legal counsel.
Mr. Leibig represented police officers and
organizations throughout Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia
as well as in such far ranging areas as California, Nevada, Texas,
Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Puerto Rico in efforts to improve wages, hours and working
conditions on the line level in law enforcement. He
included more than twenty local police unions as well as three
state wide organizations on his police roster. Although expert in police
labor law, Mr. Leibig's labor experience went well beyond that unique
specialty. He has represented six major international unions ranging from
the UAW to the NFL Players'
Association.
In one celebrated case, when the Uniformed
Division of the Secret Service was under great pressure to respond under
oath to detailed questions regarding President Clinton's personnel
actions, he effectively represented their
position that to testify under oath under the circumstances at the
time could result in compromising White House security and force them to
violate their own sworn commitment to the Service.
No stranger to the Federal Courts, Mr.
Leibig appeared before the U.S.
Supreme Court three times and has argued FLSA cases in seven of the eleven
United States Courts of Appeal. Given his long experience he was
frequently called on to testify in numerous Congressional hearings on FLSA
matters. In representing law enforcement officers and their unions in over
60 FLSA cases, he was able to get decisions that established favorable law
the majority of the times he went to court.
In one such case in Milwaukee, Wisconsin he
won a judgment that saw more than 1500 officers get a highly satisfactory
settlement from their department when the courts ruled that they deserved
overtime pay that they had not
received.
In other cases he was able to establish the
right of K-9 officers to extra pay for the responsibility and expense of
taking care of their canine partners in their own homes. It was also
largely due to his efforts that police
sergeants have been given protection from overtime exemptions. That
protection ensures that they will receive overtime pay and not have it
denied because of their rank, decisions that are expected to have
significant bearing on the current overtime struggle with the Department
of Labor.
Other cases that he successfully tried
resulted in major decisions that strengthened a police officer's right to
due process by restricting the use of polygraphs in internal
investigations, and ensuring that police officers enjoy the same
constitutional rights as other citizens. Because of his tenacity in court
and his expertise in labor law, thousands of law enforcement officers,
many who have never met him, now enjoy better wages and benefits and
greater protection of their rights today than they would have if he had
not stepped forward.
As an example of his commitment and
courage, Mr. Leibig continued to go to his office to develop cases, even
hiring a driver when he grew too weak to drive himself. Realistic but
determined, he slowly reduced his caseload and began a retirement plan to
ensure a smooth transition for his successor.
Reacting to the loss of a
long time friend and colleague, IUPA International President Sam A. Cabral
said, "While his legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of thousands
of law enforcement personnel, all of us throughout the entire law
enforcement community are deeply saddened and we all feel that our lives
are diminished by his passing."
Michael T. Leibig was 59 years old and is
survived by his wife Jan, son Chris, and daughter Kerry. At this writing,
a wake has been scheduled beginning at 7 p.m. on July 22 at the Alexandria
Police Association Hall in Alexandria, Virginia with the funeral to be
held at the Nativity Catholic Church in Burke, Virginia the following day.
In Lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be sent
to:
Doctors Without Borders
P.O. Box 1869
Merrifield, Virginia 22116
Please indicate that the gift is for Mike
Leibig
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