Mr. Pilchak has counselled management and represented employers in employment law matters and litigation exclusively since leaving a position as a Senior Trial Attorney with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office in 1984. Before joining Ogletree Deakins, he had been a principal of a respected local boutique for more than sixteen years. He has conducted dozens of jury trials in state and federal courts over his career, but knows that avoiding litigation by assisting employers with discharge planning and documentation of issues is the better business strategy. Having also worked extensively with the auto dealer, staffing and steel industries, an interesting niche of Mr. Pilchak’s practice has been the representation of many Michigan Courts for more than thirty years on employment matters and related funding issues.
He is a frequent speaker and author on employment law issues. He has addressed such groups as the American Bar Association Annual Meeting on two occasions, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on how the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act constrain employers dealing with employee violence. He was appointed to the American Bar Association's National Institute on Sexual Harassment Mock Trial Defense Team and the Mock Trial Faculty for the ABA National Institute on the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Mr. Pilchak has authored two important scholarly articles, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Borderline Personality Disorder and Sexual Compulsivity/Addiction: A Factor In Sexual Harassment Allegations?, (ABA 1997 Annual Meeting Book of Papers), and Pounding Square Pegs Into Round Holes- Non-Compete Agreements For Temporary Employees Stand Existing Law On Its Head, 21 Lab. Law 199 (2005) which was selected by GP Solo Magazine as the ABA’s best Labor and Employment article of 2005. Mr. Pilchak served as editor of the General Counsel’s Executive Summary of Employment Law in the 50 States,” co-published by the Association of Corporate Counsel.
He has been recognized for his community leadership. He was awarded the Oakland County Bar Association’s Leon Hubbard Community Service Award In Support of Diversity, and was named Chairman of the Auburn Hills Chamber of Commerce in 2012, Board Member of the Year for 2013 and Counsel to the Board in 2016.
