Joseph Aaron Golden is an American lawyer whose career has centered on labor and employment law in Michigan. He represented employees and labor organizations, helped build professional associations for employment lawyers, taught labor law, testified before Congress, and co-authored a continuing reference work on Michigan employment law.
Background
Joseph Aaron Golden was born on October 27, 1940, in Detroit, Michigan, to Milton and Sally (Schweitzer) Golden. His professional life developed in metropolitan Detroit, where the region's industrial economy, organized labor movement, and major manufacturing employers made workplace law a consequential field of practice.
He married Frances Miriam Rubenstein on August 16, 1965; they divorced in April 1973. He married Cynthia Sisson Mead on June 24, 1979. His children are Manine Rosa, Jay Dylan, Nicholas Michael Estuardo, and Samuel Marcos Golden.
Education
Golden received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Wayne State University in 1962 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Detroit in 1967. Wayne State, founded in Detroit as a public research university, developed within the city's industrial and urban educational tradition. The University of Detroit's law program, later part of the University of Detroit Mercy, trained lawyers for practice in the region's courts, businesses, public institutions, and labor organizations.
His legal education coincided with a period when American labor and employment law was expanding through civil-rights legislation, collective-bargaining disputes, and litigation over workplace rights. He subsequently combined private practice with teaching labor law as an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit from 1987.
Career
Golden was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1968 and began his legal career as supervising attorney at Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services in Ecorse from 1968 to 1970. Neighborhood legal-services programs emerged from the War on Poverty and provided representation and advice to people who could not otherwise afford legal assistance. His early work placed him in the developing field of public-interest law and employee advocacy.
From 1970 to 1973, he was a partner in Craig, Fieger & Golden in Southfield, and from 1973 to 1978 he was a partner in Fieger, Golden & Cousens. During this period he represented labor organizations, including the Michigan Federation of Teachers, and served as its general counsel. The expansion of public-sector collective bargaining in Michigan during the 1970s created new legal questions involving union organization, contracts, and employee rights.
Golden established an individual employment-rights practice in 1978. He later became associated with Sommers, Schwartz, Silver & Schwartz, Professional Corporation, where he practiced in Southfield until 2007. His work increasingly focused on wrongful discharge, workplace discrimination, and other claims brought by individual employees. The development of Michigan's wrongful-discharge doctrine and the growth of federal workplace-discrimination litigation broadened the role of employee-side attorneys during this period.
In 2007 he joined Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, Rivers & Golden, where he continued representing employees in labor and employment disputes. He later served as senior counsel at Burgess Sharp & Golden in Clinton Township and subsequently as of counsel with Kostopoulos Rodriguez in Birmingham. His practice has included employee-side employment litigation, workplace discrimination, wrongful-discharge claims, and related employment disputes.
Golden has lectured on employee-rights issues in Michigan and elsewhere. He testified before the Labor and Education Committee of the United States House of Representatives concerning the proposed Civil Rights Bill of 1991. He also represented Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler in litigation against the Detroit Tigers concerning alleged job-security promises; the case was settled in 1994.
Achievements
Golden testified before the Labor and Education Committee of the United States House of Representatives concerning the proposed Civil Rights Bill of 1991, bringing an employee-rights perspective to a national legislative debate.
He represented Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler in litigation against the Detroit Tigers concerning alleged job-security promises; the dispute was settled in 1994.
He co-authored Michigan Employment Law, a continuing reference work covering Michigan and federal rules governing the employment relationship, including discrimination, compensation, workplace safety, termination, unions, and collective labor relations.
(Co-authored with Elizabeth Parker, this continuing LexisN...)
2023
Views
Golden's professional statements emphasize the importance of providing employees with meaningful representation when they face employers with substantially greater financial resources. His public advocacy presents employment law as a means of placing individual workers and large institutions on a more equal footing in disputes over discrimination, wrongful discharge, and workplace rights.
Membership
Golden has participated extensively in professional organizations devoted to labor, employment, trial, and bar practice. He was a founding member of the National Employment Lawyers Association, served on its executive board from 1985 to 1995, and was president from 1991 to 1993. NELA was established to support lawyers representing employees and to develop the field of employee-side employment law.
He helped found the Michigan Employment Lawyers Association and served as its president from 1991 to 1995, later working as its legislative director. He also held leadership roles in the American Bar Association's labor and employment section, including public co-chair of its Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee and service on the section's governing council. His other professional affiliations have included the State Bar of Michigan, the American Association for Justice, the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association, the Oakland County Bar Association, and the Macomb County Bar Association.
Founding member; executive board member
National Employment Lawyers Association
,
United States
1985 - 1995
Co-founder; president from 1991 to 1995; legislative director thereafter
Michigan Employment Lawyers Association
,
United States
1991 - present
Public co-chair of the Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee; council member of the Section of Labor and Employment Law from 1988 to 1992
American Bar Association
,
United States
Member of the Labor and Employment Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution sections
State Bar of Michigan
,
United States
Inducted as a Fellow
College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
,
United States
1996 - present
Elected as a Fellow
Michigan State Bar Foundation
,
United States
2012 - present
American Association for Justice
,
United States
Michigan Trial Lawyers Association
,
United States
Oakland County Bar Association
,
United States
Macomb County Bar Association
,
United States
Personality
A profile of Golden described him as personable, relaxed, and quick to laugh. Colleagues and opposing counsel also characterized him as humorous, skilled, honorable, and committed to employee-side advocacy.
Physical Characteristics:
Golden has been publicly described as wearing a long beard and, at times, casual clothing such as jeans.
Quotes from others about the person
Opposing counsel Michael D. Ritenour described Golden as one of the best, most honorable, and most skilled attorneys he had encountered.
Connections
Golden married Frances Miriam Rubenstein in 1965 and Cynthia Sisson Mead in 1979. His children are Manine Rosa, Jay Dylan, Nicholas Michael Estuardo, and Samuel Marcos Golden.
Father:
Milton Golden
Mother:
Sally (Schweitzer) Golden
Spouse:
Frances Miriam Rubenstein
Married Golden in 1965; the marriage ended in divorce in 1973.
Spouse:
Cynthia Sisson Mead
Married Golden in 1979.
child:
Samuel Marcos Golden
child:
Nicholas Michael Estuardo Golden
child:
Jay Dylan Golden
child:
Manine Rosa Golden
References
Legal Talk Network biography of Joseph A. Golden
Documents Golden's education, employment-law practice, professional leadership, congressional testimony, and involvement with employment-law organizations.
Joseph A. Golden — KO|RO
Documents Golden's practice areas, jurisdictions, professional recognitions, bar admissions, and memberships.
Beyond the Water Cooler
Profiles Golden's employee-side employment practice and includes descriptions of his courtroom reputation and professional character.
2007
Michigan Employment Law
Library record documenting Golden and Elizabeth Parker as authors of the continuing LexisNexis reference work.
