About
I’ve been a union and employee-side lawyer since I was first admitted to practice in Connecticut in 1986. Since then, I have worked for unions and law firms in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and now Vermont. I left my position as General Counsel to the Vermont State Employees’ Association in the Fall of 2023, and opened this law practice in early 2024.
Most of my work has involved advising and representing employees who have been unfairly disciplined or otherwise faced violations of their legal or contractual rights. I’ve represented unions or union members in arbitration and administrative hearings. I have also litigated multiple appeals before the Maine and Vermont Supreme Courts. While in Maine, I worked on two cases that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I have worked in almost every aspect of union work, from organizer to executive director. After receiving a MS in Labor Studies from U. Mass., I spent 3 years as a salt for the HERE campaign to organize clerical workers at Yale. I got my J.D. from U.Conn. Law School and then worked for Local 376 of the UAW in Hartford, and then as an associate for the McTeague Higbee firm in Maine where I handled workers’ compensation cases and represented unions. I worked for 25 years for the Maine State Employees Association, SEIU Local 1989, as Staff Attorney, General Counsel, and Executive Director. I then spend almost two years with the the Lichten and Liss-Riordan firm in Boston, representing individual employees and several unions, before returning to MSEA and then joining VSEA.
I’ve also worked on numerous organizing, contract, legislative, and electoral campaigns. These included organizing new bargaining units and successfully winning bargaining rights for new groups of workers. In Maine, we successfully fought back against the Right to Work Committee’s litigation and organizing campaign to destroy the union. I’ve successfully defended unions against decertification campaigns and duty of fair representation cases.
I served for a number of years as the co-chair of the Guild’s Labor and Employment Committee. I am active in the Vermont Progressive Party, and currently serve on the Coordinating Committee. I am a thirty year member of the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance. I also perform pro bono work for the Emergency Workers Organizing Committee.
I am admitted to practice in Vermont, and was admitted but am currently retired from practice in Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts.
Member of:
National Lawyers Guild
Vermont Bar Association
AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance
National Employment Lawyers Association
Contact information:
Tim Belcher Law PLC
26 Windywood Rd
Barre, VT 05641
207-841-1585 (cell)