Our Team…
Russell J. Reid is one of the Pacific Northwest’s pre-eminent employee benefits and union-side labor attorneys. A graduate of Whitman College and Stanford University School of Law, he joined the firm in 1968 and has devoted his practice to representing working men and women and collectively bargained trust funds ever since. Mr. Reid is a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a highly exclusive, invitation-only organization whose membership is confined to the country’s most respected labor lawyers, union and management.
Email Russell J. Reid at rjr@rpmb.com. Practice Areas: ERISA and Labor Law.
Kenneth J. Pedersen is a 1977 honors graduate of Gonzaga University, and received his law degree from the Seattle University School of Law in 1980. From 1980 to 1985 he practiced with the firm of Critchlow & Williams in his hometown of Richland, Washington, joining the firm in 1985. His practice includes representation of labor organizations and employees in labor arbitration, before the National Labor Relations Board, the Washington State Public Employees Relations Commission, the Department of Labor, and in the federal and state courts. He is a member of the Bishop Blanchet High School Advisory Board.
Email Kenneth J. Pedersen at ken@rpmb.com. Practice Areas: Labor Law, Wage and Hour Litigation.
Michael R. McCarthy has been with Reid, Pedersen, McCarthy & Ballew, LLP since 1988. He is a 1977 honors graduate of Harvard University, where he edited the Harvard Lampoon, the nation’s oldest humor magazine. One of six children of a Chicago plumbing supply salesman, he financed his education via a number of scholarships and a “work study” job cleaning dormitory bathrooms. He graduated with honors in 1985 from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was the winner of that school’s moot court competition. Despite his years, Mr. McCarthy remains proud that he was the top student academically in a graduating class of 1200 from the largest public high school in the State of Illinois and a National Merit Scholarship winner.
Mr. McCarthy is lead counsel to a number of labor unions, throughout Washington State, in San Francisco, and on the Gulf Coast. He has also served as lead counsel in class action lawsuits to recover unpaid overtime compensation for bread, cake and snack chip delivery drivers wrongly claimed to be exempt outside salespeople. Settlements in those suits resulted in per person payments in the many thousands of dollars.
Mr. McCarthy has previously served on the board of directors of Washington State’s protection and advocacy system for the disabled and the parent commission of the Saint Benedict School. He lives in Seattle with his wife of 24 years, Cathleen, and their two sons, Brendan and Doyle.
Email Michael R. McCarthy at mike@rpmb.com. Practice Areas: Labor Law, Wage and Hour Litigation, ERISA, Injuries at Sea.
David W. Ballew joined the firm in 1988 after clerking for the firm during law school. He is a graduate of the University of Washington and the Seattle University School of Law. David has received national recognition for demonstrating excellence and high honor in courtroom advocacy. He is the fourth generation of his family to devote his career to the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest and understands and respects the balance between labor and management. David is admitted to practice in the Washington State Courts, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.
Email David W. Ballew at david@rpmb.com. Practice Areas: Labor Law, ERISA, Wage and Hour Litigation.
Thomas A. Leahy graduated cum laude from Seattle University School of Law, where he was an associate editor of the law review, and received his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. In 2001, Mr. Leahy was named a ”rising star“ by Washington Law & Politics magazine. He came to the firm in 2002, after serving as a staff attorney for the Service Employees International Union Washington State Council for five years.
Email Thomas A. Leahy at tom@rpmb.com. Practice Areas: Labor Law, ERISA.
