Elliot Bredhoff

Elliot Bredhoff, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 83, was a prominent leader in employee benefits and labor law bar who represented many unions and union plans in pension negotiations. He was inducted as a Charter Emeritus Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”) in 2000.

Elliot graduated from City College of New York in 1942, serving as president of its student council. Rising to the rank of first lieutenant as a communications officer with the Army Air Corps during World War II, Elliot subsequently entered Yale Law School, graduating in 1949 after becoming editor of the law journal.

Elliot came to Washington DC as Assistant General Counsel to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (“CIO”) under its then General Counsel Arthur Goldberg.

Elliot co-founded the law firm of Goldberg, Keller & Bredhoff in 1950 with Arthur Goldberg (later appointed by President Kennedy as U.S. Secretary of Labor in 1961, then Associate Supreme Court Justice eighteen months later) and David Feller (a leading litigator, then later a leading arbitrator and professor of labor law at the University of California, Berkeley). The firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser, from which Elliot ultimately retired as senior counsel, grew from the Goldberg, Keller & Bredhoff firm.

Elliot advised labor unions on contract negotiations, benefits, and arbitration matters. From the 1950s to the 1980s, he represented the United Steelworkers of America (“USW”) in negotiating collective bargaining agreements with steel companies. From 1969-1991, he served as special counsel to the USW. Elliot remained General Counsel to the Industrial Union Department of the American Federation of Labor (“AFL”)-CIO for almost 30 years. In addition, he served as counsel for the National Industrial Group Pension Plan.

Elliot’s career included labor law achievements that had impact beyond employee benefits. Of special note, on behalf of the USW, Elliot and his partners participated in briefing and oral argument in three legendary cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1960 that became known as the Steelworkers Trilogy -- United Steelworkers v. American Mfg. Co., United Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co., and United Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp. The trilogy established the principle that federal courts should favor the arbitration process to resolve grievances between labor and management and laid the foundation for the modern private labor arbitration system. He served on the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Grievance Board, which adjudicated disputes between Foreign Service employees and their agencies, from 1973-1993.

Also a Charter Emeritus Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Elliot exemplified a life of leadership and service to the bar. From 1996-2003, Elliot was a member of the Board of Governors of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He served as Section Chair of the American Bar Association (“ABA”) Labor and Employment Law Section in 1984-1985, as a member of its governing Council, and later as editor of the Section’s newsletter.

Upon his passing, in a resolution in his honor, the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section Council described Elliot’s “unyielding integrity, respect for everyone he encountered and, perhaps most of all, his open heart and warm cordiality.” The ABA resolution praised Elliot for “set[ting] a standard for us all in our professional and personal lives.”

Since the founding of The Peggy Browning Fund, established to educate and inspire the next generation of advocates for workplace justice, Elliot sat on its Advisory Council and remained “a good friend and supporter” of the mentor organization. In its Dedication of the USW Summer Fellowship “[i]n memory of Elliot Bredhoff,” the Fund noted that Elliot often appeared before the U. S. Supreme Court and federal appellate courts as a recognized authority on labor law, constitutional law, and civil rights issues. Three times in the 1980's, the National Law Journal named Elliot one of the hundred most influential labor lawyers in the nation.

Elliot continued pro bono service as he reduced his law practice. Active in Jewish causes, Elliot served on the board of directors of the National Committee for Labor Israel. He served on the regional board of the National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) and received its National Brotherhood Award in 1987.

Elliot was highly regarded among many who crossed his path. George Cohen, his long-time colleague at Bredhoff & Kaiser, noted that Elliot “brought out the best in the people on the other side of the table. In Elliot’s view, there simply was no problem confronting workers that was incapable of being resolved through bargaining. The more confrontational his counterpart across the table, the more Elliot relished the challenge. He had both a style and a technique—show Elliot an irascible side and you were uniformly met with his becoming cooler and calmer.” “Union and management representatives, government officials, academicians, arbitrators, and jurists all aspired to become [his] friend . . .and most succeeded. He was perpetually willing to assist people, even relative strangers, in their quest for new employment opportunities.”

A leader in employee benefits and labor law, Elliot’s dedication and contributions extended beyond the law to include the legal and broader community.


Sources included: Bredhoff & Kaiser Firm History; Mark Risk’s “Counselor, Negotiator, Mensch: The Section Remembers Elliot Bredhoff,” ABA Labor and Employment Law Section Newsletter, Vol. 33, No. 2, Winter 2005; the November 4, 2004, New York Times, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times obituaries; and the Dedication of the Peggy Browning Fund of its fellowship in memory of Elliot Bredhoff.

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010