Arthur G. Telegen is an American labor and employment lawyer based in Boston, Massachusetts. He practiced for about thirty-five years at Foley, Hoag & Eliot, later Foley Hoag, where he chaired the labor and employment department, before joining Seyfarth Shaw as a partner in 2009. He is known for advising employers on union relations, collective bargaining, and labor litigation.
Background
Arthur G. Telegen was born on March 11, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts, the city in which he later built his legal career.
His path to legal practice followed a sequence of undergraduate study, military service, and legal education. He completed his Bachelor of Arts at Brandeis University, served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1971, and then entered Harvard Law School. The Army is the land-warfare branch of the United States armed forces, and his return to civilian study preceded his admission to the bar in 1974.
Education
Telegen received his undergraduate education at Brandeis University, from which he earned a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.). Brandeis was founded in 1948 on the site of the former Middlesex University in Waltham, Massachusetts, as the first Jewish-sponsored nonsectarian university in the United States. It was named for Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. He was also a member of the university's Student Judiciary.
He then attended Harvard Law School, where he graduated with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. He was an editor of the Harvard Law Review from 1972 to 1974, a student editorship that formed part of his legal education.
Career
Telegen's military service came first, when he served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1971. His association with Foley, Hoag & Eliot began in 1974, the year he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. The firm had been founded on April 1, 1943, by Henry Elliot Foley and Garrett Scattergood Hoag, and it began in a three-room office at 10 Post Office Square in Boston's Financial District. In the 1970s the firm represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit that brought desegregation to Boston Public Schools, an episode that became part of its history.
Over the following decades Telegen became a partner and chaired the firm's labor and employment department for more than a decade. His work concerned relations between employers and unions. He counseled national and international employers across many industries, handled labor issues in arbitration and before the National Labor Relations Board, and tried employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and ERISA cases in the federal courts. A significant part of his practice involved advising clients on the labor issues raised by major transactions.
In March 2009 he joined Seyfarth Shaw LLP as a partner in the labor and employment department of its Boston office. Seyfarth Shaw described itself at the time as one of America's leading full-service law firms. In a Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly interview, he said that Foley was a strong regional firm but that his practice had become more national than regional. He has been admitted to the Massachusetts bar, several federal district courts, several federal courts of appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has also been quoted in the Boston Globe, Law360, and SHRM on labor-relations questions, including the Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters ruling.
Works
article
The Impact of the Michigan Cases in the Employment Context
(Article by Telegen in The College of Labor & Employment L...)
2003
legal update
NLRB Targets Confidentiality and Non-Disparagement Provisions
(Co-authored Legal Update published by Seyfarth Shaw LLP o...)
2023
Election 2024 Labor & Employment Special Report
(Co-authored special report published by Seyfarth Shaw LLP...)
2024
Is Arbitration the Answer: Vaccination Arbitration?
(Co-authored Legal Update published by Seyfarth Shaw LLP o...)
2022
Membership
Telegen's professional memberships center on the national, state, and local bar associations that serve lawyers in his practice field. He is a member of the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section, and he belongs to the Labor & Employment sections of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association. Those sections allow practitioners in the same specialty to share developments in labor and employment law across the American legal system.
His affiliations also include organizations devoted to management-side practice and public-interest legal services. He was a founding member of the Boston Area Management Attorneys Group and is a member of the American Employment Law Council. He has served on the board of directors of Greater Boston Legal Services, a nonprofit provider of civil legal aid, and in 2001 he became a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.
Member of the Labor and Employment Law Section.
American Bar Association
,
United States
Member of the Labor & Employment Section.
Massachusetts Bar Association
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United States
Member of the Labor & Employment Law Section.
Boston Bar Association
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United States
Member of the Board of Directors.
Greater Boston Legal Services
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United States
1983 - present
Founding member.
Boston Area Management Attorneys Group
,
United States
Member.
American Employment Law Council
,
United States
Fellow.
College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
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United States
2001 - present
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Lisa J. Damon, managing partner of Seyfarth Shaw's Boston office, described him as a 'well-known and highly respected leader of the Massachusetts management-side labor and employment bar.' Chambers USA respondents called him 'truly brilliant' and 'very learned and wise in his counsel.'
Arthur Telegen, Seyfarth Shaw LLP profile
Firm profile listing his education, practice focus, and recognition, including a 2024 Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Hall of Fame honor.
Arthur Telegen, USA
Chambers USA profile describing his labor and employment practice, education, and client commentary.
