About Us

Firm History

Portrait of Roy Burns two decades ago.

After serving his country in the United States Navy, Roy Barnes attended the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Upon graduation, Roy worked for Jimmy Hoffa organizing non-union employers and directing communication campaigns involving picket signs, leaflets, and organizing campaigns. While working for the Teamsters, Mr. Barnes attended Brooklyn Law School at night and after graduating started working at Delson, Levin & Gordon, a labor law firm in New York City. After several years, Mr. Barnes started his own firm, Roy Barnes, P.C., in 1976 with the purpose of improving the lives of the hardworking men and women of the labor movement. Located on Long Island 30 miles from New York City, the firm serves unions and their affiliated benefit funds throughout New York and New Jersey.

As the firm continued to grow from a sole proprietorship and represented more unions throughout upstate New York, it expanded to Elmsford in the heart of Westchester County allowing our attorneys to better represent clients located throughout New York.

In 2008, Roy Barnes, P.C. became Barnes, Iaccarino & Shepherd, LLP. Although Mr. Barnes retired from the firm in 2015, the founding principles with which Roy Barnes started the firm over forty years ago are still alive today and at the center of every interaction with unions, employers, service providers, and most importantly the hardworking union members and their families.

Firm Overview

Barnes, Iaccarino & Shepherd LLP, the successor firm to Roy Barnes, P.C., represents public and private sector unions and their affiliated employee benefit plans. Since its founding Barnes, Iaccarino & Shepherd LLP has provided quality legal services in various areas of labor and employee benefits law, serving clients throughout New York and New Jersey.

The firm is experienced in issues facing unions including working with business agents to assist in organizing employers, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and representing the union in proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board and Public Employment Relations Board.

Our attorneys routinely work with Trustees, fund administrators/managers, plan professionals, and service providers on various benefit funds addressing the daily compliance and internal governance issues involved in providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries. With over forty years of experience and familiarity with issues facing Taft-Hartley and pre Taft-Hartley benefit plans, our attorneys are well versed in the technical requirements imposed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and its implementing regulations.

We firmly believe that a collaborative approach works best, striving to work with executive boards, boards of trustees, plan professionals, and service providers as a team. In this respect, our attorneys regularly communicate with union officers, business agents, fund office personnel, trustees, service providers, and investment consultants to address all the concerns and issues facing unions and employee benefit funds.

In our representation of unions and employee benefit funds, our firm has handled hundreds of cases in Federal and State Courts throughout New York and New Jersey, before the National Labor Relations Board and American Arbitration Association, and represented clients before the Department of Labor, Employee Benefit Security Administration, Department of Transportation, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and other federal, state, and local agencies.