JOHN F. MILLS - (1939-2003)
JOHN F. MILLS became associated with our firm in 1972 while working as a New York City Firefighter, serving as a Company Delegate for Local 94, IAFF, AFL-CIO, and attending law school. He retired from the Fire Department in 1977 and became a partner in this firm in 1979.
Mr. Mills had specialized in labor law in both the public and private sectors since his admission to the bar in 1974. Mr. Mills was admitted to practice in the New York State courts, the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Federal Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. From 1981 to 1985 Mr. Mills served as Labor Counsel to the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York and from 1990 to 1992 served as General/Labor Counsel for that organization.
Mr. Mills had vast and varied experience in the fringe benefit fund area, having represented Pension, Health, Annuity, Industry Promotion and Scholarship Funds and Paid and Prepaid Legal Services Funds. He pioneered the introduction of prepaid legal services funds and the use of paralegals in law firms. He had additional expertise in the public pension area, having drafted and participated in the enactment into law of various pension improvement plans for New York City Firefighters and New York City Transport Workers.
Mr. Mills was a member of the American, New York State and Nassau County Bar Associations and a member of the Labor Law Sections of the American and New York State Bar Associations and the International Foundation of Pension and Welfare Funds. He also served as an Adjunct Professor of Paralegal Studies at St. John’s University, Queens, NY, where he created that institution’s curriculum for its program leading to a baccalaureate degree in paralegal studies. Unfortunately, for all who knew him, John passed away in August of 2003.