Joanmarie M. Dowling, Esq.
Managing Member
Joanmarie quickly learned that the most interesting legal work of all is employment law - and she’s never looked back. In starting her own practice in 2010, Joanmarie combined her passion for employment law with her enthusiasm for technology, efficiency, and collaboration. Dowling Law is (nearly) a paperless office.
Joanmarie advises and represents for-profit and not-for-profit employers of all sizes in a variety of labor and employment matters, including screening and hiring, discrimination and harassment, reasonable accommodations, leave management, unionization and labor relations, wage and hour, and discipline and discharge.
We focus on being preventative: creating solid handbooks, policies, and procedures, training managers and supervisors, and strategizing on employee relations in a way to reduce the risk of legal liability.
Joanmarie’s goal - whether presenting before an audience or speaking with a client - is to make employment law accessible. Not to brag, but she was once described as “making wage/hour presentations as tolerable as possible.” (Pretty high praise, right?) She is a frequent presenter and writer on a variety of employment issues.
In addition to proactive counseling, Joanmarie also conducts workplace investigations on a wide array of legal or policy violation allegations, including workplace discrimination and harassment, code of conduct or ethical violations, bullying, or other alleged misconduct. Joanmarie is a trained investigator and member of the Association of Workplace Investigators.
While her goal is to keep her clients out of the fray, litigation sometimes happens. Joanmarie has successfully defended employers in both federal and state courts as well as before administrative agencies, such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York Division of Human Rights, the U.S. and New York Departments of Labor, and the New York Workers' Compensation Board.
Joanmarie is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the Capital Region Human Resource Association. She previously served as Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President of the Capital Region Human Resource Association and as a member of the New York State Society for Human Resource Management’s State Council. She currently serves as a director of the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Joanmarie is an enthusiastic Alabama football fan, gardener, and genealogist. She lives in Albany with her husband, Joe, their two teenage children whose names she promised not to disclose in a public setting, and their two puppies, Ruby and Cocoa.