Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Stephen Pincus, left, Pamina Ewing, Edward Feinstein, John Stember, Bill Payne and Jere Krakoff work for Stember Feinstein, a law firm that is representing retirees from General Motors and Ford in cases involving reductions in health benefits. Click photo for larger image.

Visitors at law firm Stember Feinstein shouldn't count on a receptionist to greet them. The front counter is piled so high with files that it's more efficient to flag down one of the professionals.

And when you find them zipping through the narrow hall or working at computers in a cramped cubby hole most are dressed in casual sweaters, jeans and khakis. There is one place to sit on the firm's 17th floor offices in the Allegheny Building, Downtown: a plaid sofa that looks like it was plucked from someone's family room.

A plush, tastefully decorated law firm Stember Feinstein is not. But this no-frills firm with only five attorneys is immersed in cases with huge implications for thousands of workers and retirees at some of the country's largest corporations, including General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.

The firm recently negotiated a settlement to retain health-care benefits for 500,000 union retirees of GM and is working on a similar case involving retirees of Ford. It has also handled cases for unions and retirees at, among others, PPG Industries, Morton Salt and Crown, Cork & Seal.

The firm collaborates closely with William T. Payne, a longtime labor attorney who checks in regularly from his own digs in Shaler.

In the GM case, several GM retirees and the United Auto Workers filed suit against the automaker in October, claiming it could not alter their health-care benefits. GM, which lost $1.6 billion in the third quarter, earlier had reached a deal with the UAW aimed at saving the company about $1 billion a year in health-care costs, but the union and retirees challenged the agreement in order to protect benefits negotiated previously for retirees.

Stember Feinstein and Mr. Payne were appointed class counsel for the retirees and after extensive analysis of GM's finances -- and many trips to and from Detroit where the case was filed -- negotiated a settlement that would leave current medical benefits largely in place for retirees who make less than $8,000 annually in pension income. For retirees with pension earnings of more than $8,000 a year, the settlement requires them to pay monthly premiums of $10 a month for singles and $21 a month for families; and deductibles of $150 a year for singles and $300 for families.

A hearing on the settlement is scheduled for March 6 in federal court in Detroit.

"GM wanted much greater cuts [in benefits] and considerably higher premiums," said Mr. Payne. "We felt this was a reasonable settlement."

Stember Feinstein has been appointed to represent retirees of Ford in a similar case, but the attorneys declined to discuss details before an agreement is reached.

Taking a break on a recent weekday morning to talk about how their small practice has achieved national prominence in such cases, the lawyers at Stember Feinstein -- as well as Mr. Payne who was patched in on a speaker phone -- said they share a passion for workers' rights.

"We all feel very strongly and believe in the cause that if someone works his or her whole life and is promised benefits,'' they should get them, said John Stember, 54, a partner who traces his specialty in retiree health benefits to a case he handled for employees of Union Switch & Signal in the 1970s when he worked at Neighborhood Legal Services. "In most cases, these retirees are not living off lavish pensions."

It was at NLS that Mr. Stember met his current law partners, Ed Feinstein, 57, and Jere Krakoff, 63. "We all have an interest in labor, civil rights and unions," Mr. Stember said.

Mr. Krakoff is a civil rights specialist who has earned a national reputation in cases representing inmates challenging unconstitutional conditions at jails and prisons. Mr. Feinstein's work, in addition to employment law, has focused on education law including cases involving the rights of students who require special education in public schools and desegregation issues including the class-action case that created the Woodland Hills School District.

After they left NLS and branched off into various private practices, the three partners kept in touch and worked on cases together over the years. Mr. Stember kept running across Mr. Payne's name "because he is the guru in the retiree health area."

Mr. Payne, 52, was a staff attorney for the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh from 1982 to 199, then spent several years practicing law in Southern California with a focus on union and retiree cases before he returned here in 1996 and eventually opened his own firm.

The partners reunited officially in 2003 to create Stember Feinstein and in 2004 hired attorneys Pamina Ewing, 43, a former associate at Reed Smith LLP, one of the city's largest firms, and Stephen Pincus, 38, who worked at several firms in New Haven, Conn., before relocating to Pittsburgh in 2002 after he and his wife conducted a nationwide search "for a good place to raise a family."

"I like being in the David [vs. Goliath] role," said Mr. Pincus of working at a small firm that faces off against Fortune 500 corporations. "When I wake up in the morning, I feel like I'm making the world a better place."

Ms. Ewing acknowledged Stember Feinstein lacks the staff support of a large firm such as Reed Smith where she worked previously, but the size of the firm means "my thoughts are greatly taken into consideration."

"We have to be leaner ... this is the kind of place that if someone buys an SUV, they get grief about it."

"The firms we're up against are A-list, national firms with huge resources," acknowledged Mr. Stember. So Stember Feinstein uses paralegals and law students to help with its case load "and we're thinking about hiring at least one more attorney," he said.

Though it spends about 75 percent of its time on retiree health care cases, the firm figures it will get more recognition for a case involving basketball season ticket holders at the University of Pittsburgh.

After the university decided to reassign seats at Petersen Events Center based on contributions above the cost of the tickets, Stember Feinstein filed a class-action suit and reached a settlement last year that allows the ticket holders to retain their seats with a minimum donation to the school.

"That was our classic 15 minutes of fame," said Mr. Stember, who is among those who have season tickets to Pitt.

But as health-care costs soar and companies continue to slash worker benefits, the firm is likely to attract a steady flow of business. "Unfortunately, companies trying to change retiree health benefits is a growing industry," said Mr. Stember. "And it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon."