Shareholder
William Sokol
Emeryville, CA
Email: wsokol@unioncounsel.net
Telephone: 510-337-1001
Education:
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 1976
University of California, Berkeley, 1972
Yale Law School, 1969
University of Wisconsin, 1968
Practice Areas:
Appellate Litigation
Collective Bargaining
Employment Discrimination
Labor and Trust Fund Arbitrations
Labor-Management Cooperation Committees
Nonprofit Organizations
Organizing Campaigns
Political and Legislative Action
Private Sector Labor Relations
Public Sector Labor Relations
Real Estate
Training for Union Advocates
Trust Funds and Employee Benefit Plans
Union Governance
Bill Sokol joined Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld in 1976. Mr. Sokol currently practices primarily in the ERISA and benefits area, representing pension funds, health and welfare funds, and apprenticeship and training funds. He serves as both sole counsel and co-counsel on these funds, in a wide array of industries, from engineers to health care workers to teamsters, in both the private and public sectors.
Mr. Sokol also represents unions in their labor relations with employers and members. He leads informational presentations for internal and external audiences, helping train WRR’s newer attorneys while educating broad audiences of workers, union staffers, member leaders, and other advocates for unions and employees nationwide.
Mr. Sokol teaches labor law in the Labor Studies Department of San Francisco State University. He has also taught at University of California at Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, Laney College, and San Francisco City College, where he has lectured widely on labor law and related topics. Beyond academia and the practice of law, Mr. Sokol also worked as a talk show host for the Pacifica Radio network for 25 years and has appeared on NPR as a legal commenter.
Mr. Sokol received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, receiving Phi Beta Kappa honors. After a year at Yale Law School, Mr. Sokol pursued a master’s degree in modern American history at the University of California, Berkeley, which he received in 1972. Mr. Sokol thereafter received his juris doctor from the UC Berkeley School of Law in 1976. While at Berkeley Law, Mr. Sokol was an editor of Ecology Law Quarterly.