James P. Smith focuses his practice on employment litigation, labor arbitrations, collective bargaining and helping management resolve employment-related issues. He has wide-ranging civil litigation experience in both employment and commercial matters and has handled cases involving:
- Age, race, gender and disability discrimination and harassment
- Unfair competition and trade secret matters
- Leave and disability
- Compensation
- Wage and hour
- Labor disputes
- Business restructuring, including reorganizations and acquisitions
- Section 1983
He has successfully represented clients in complex disputes before federal and state courts throughout the country and before administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board and various state civil rights commissions. He also appears before labor and employment arbitrators and has obtained favorable results for employers at both the trial and appellate levels. He has specific knowledge of the following statutes:
- Title VII
- The Americans with Disabilities Act
- The Family and Medical Leave Act
- The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
- The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
- The Uniform Trade Secrets Act
- Ohio and federal collective bargaining laws
- The Ohio Civil Rights Act
- The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
- The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act
Jim also advises employers on a variety of day-to-day issues that confront management. These include the management of employee issues related to federal and state anti-discrimination laws, as well as employee discipline and employee separation.
Additionally, Jim speaks on a wide variety of subjects concerning employers, including:
- Discrimination
- Harassment
- Restrictive covenants
- Disability
- Leave issues
- The FMLA
- Litigation strategies
He works with a broad range of clients, particularly in the following industries:
- Technology companies
- Hotels
- Hospitals
- Financial institutions
- Manufacturers
- Communications institutions
- Insurance companies
- Public sector employers
Prior to working at Littler, James worked for a well-established regional labor and employment law firm where he developed wide-ranging civil litigation experience in both employment and commercial matters. In law school, he was a member of the Immigration and Nationality Law Review.