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M.J. (“Mike”) Asensio practices in the area of management labor and employment law. He is a nationally recognized employment and labor practitioner and has extensive experience managing employee relations for clients in the healthcare, aerospace, transportation, manufacturing and energy industries.

Mike is the former leader of the firm’s Labor Relations Team. His practice also encompasses employment ligation, executive compensation and employment counseling.

With regard to labor relations, Mike has extensive experience representing employers in union organizational drives, especially those involving very large or complex voting units. He has handled several organizational drives involving 1,000 or more employees. He successfully represented a client in one of the largest representation elections ever conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, involving 17,000 employees. Mike uses specialized computer applications to provide clients with detailed statistical and demographic analyses of voting units. He also has experience in developing multimedia/web-based communication systems to facilitate effective communication during organizational campaigns. In addition, he recently advised numerous clients on preparing for the potential passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and other labor reform issues.

Mike is experienced in organizational development, work stoppages and strikes, negotiation and administration of labor contracts, labor arbitrations, negotiation of employment contracts, wrongful discharge and employment-at-will litigation, federal and state civil rights litigation and federal and state wage hour disputes. He counsels clients on general employment relations matters, including the drafting of personnel policies and procedures to ensure compliance with federal and state law.

Mike actively practices before a number of regulatory agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. Mike represents clients in a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, e-commerce, news media, banking, healthcare, air freight, trucking, manufacturing, warehousing and retail and service establishments.

Mike’s practice also focuses on executive compensation matters, especially those involving tax-exempt organizations. He actively counsels compensation committees with regard to compliance and audit issues, as well as governance matters involving executive compensation.

Mike has been named in Best Lawyers in America 2012 in the area of Labor Law-Management and was named one of the top ten labor attorneys in the country by Human Resources Executive Magazine in the 2010, 2011 and 2013 surveys of the “Nation’s Most Powerful Employment Attorneys.”  He is a member of the American (Labor and Employment Law Section), Ohio State and Columbus Bar Associations.

Mike is a contributing author on labor law chapters for the Annual Review of Developments in Business and Corporate Litigation (2007-2011 editions), published by the American Bar Association, Committee on Business and Corporate Litigation.