FRANCIS P. ALVAREZ is a Partner in the White Plains, New York office of the national workplace law firm of Jackson Lewis LLP.

Mr. Alvarez is the national coordinator of Jackson Lewis’ Disability Management Practice Group which assists employers in meeting the legal and practical challenges posed by federal and state laws protecting injured and ill employees. Counseling hundreds of employers each year, Mr. Alvarez spearheads the firm’s effort to be the leading law firm in the country providing imaginative and creative solutions to the complex array of workplace disability and health management issues faced by both large and small companies.

Mr. Alvarez writes and speaks frequently on disability management issues including legal developments under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Early in his career, he co-authored Making The ADA Work For You, Second Edition, published by Milt Wright & Associates; and assisted in writing The Americans with Disabilities Act: A Comprehensive Guide To Title I, also published by Milt Wright & Associates.

Recent articles authored by Mr. Alvarez include: "Peripheral Vision" Needed to Navigate Requirements on Employee Leaves, published in the February 23, 2004 issue of the New York Law Journal; and Disability Management Law Grows Up: Examining the Supreme Court’s Recent ADA and FMLA Rulings, published in the September-October 2002 issue of the SHRM Legal Report.

In June 2002, Mr. Alvarez appeared on CNN-f/n to discuss the Supreme Court’s ADA decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Echazabal. Mr. Alvarez also has been quoted by print media including the following publications: Countering a Weight Crisis, published in the March 2004 issue of HR Magazine; Tighter Reins on Who Is Disabled, published in the April 2002 issue of Occupational Health and Safety; Experts Advise Practicing ADA Accommodation, published in the April 2002 issue of HR News; and Supreme Court Narrows ADA Standard, published in the February 2002 issue of HR News.

Mr. Alvarez is a graduate of The Fordham University School of Law and the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. He is admitted to practice law in New York and Connecticut and to the bars of the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York, the District of Connecticut, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. He has represented employers as lead counsel in both trial and appellate courts and has successfully tried employment discrimination claims to verdict.