Biography

José, known to his friends and clients alike as “Pepe”, is a consummate business and employment attorney with over forty-five 45 years of experience advising employers and litigating in the fields of labor and employment laws and regulations and workers’ compensation matters. Following his 1970 graduation from the St. John’s Preparatory School at Danvers, Mass., Pepe returned to Puerto Rico and graduated from the University of Puerto Rico Business School with an Accounting Major in 1974 and from its Law School in 1977 with a Juris Doctor degree. He then served as a Hearing Examiner at the Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico from 1978 to 1981, handling appeals from the decisions of the State Insurance Fund Corporation, the public corporation with sole authority to issue and manage workers’ compensation insurance in Puerto Rico. He followed his time at the Industrial Commission with five years in private practice from 1981 through 1986 representing clients on workers’ compensation matters.

Pepe then joined the law firm of Fiddler, Gonzalez & Rodriguez in 1986 where he remained until 2017. At Fiddler, Pepe had a successful career, including serving as Head of the firm’s Labor & Employment Division. Pepe has represented employers in a wide range of labor and employment matters including labor arbitration, employment discrimination, wage and hour, wrongful termination, and unlawful labor practices, amongst others. He is best known, however, as the go-to-counsel and preeminent attorney in Puerto Rico for workers’ compensation advice and litigation at all levels. He has also been a featured speaker at innumerable labor and employment law seminars, had fifteen published opinions by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, and co-authored a publication on workers’ compensation which has been cited by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.

After Fiddler, Gonzalez & Rodriguez, Pepe accepted the invitation of his long-time friend Rafael E. Aguiló-Velez to collaborate with him as Special Counsel at Schuster Aguiló LLC, which he did from 2017 to 2022, and then joined Mr. Aguiló-Velez at Aguiló LLC.