John B. Lewis
John Lewis concentrates his practice on the resolution of complex employment, civil rights and regulatory disputes, including the defense and oversight of class action litigation. He is the Chair of the firm’s Employment and Civil Rights Class Action Team. Mr. Lewis has represented organizations in a wide range of industries including retail, insurance, railway, securities, telecommunications, automotive, media, financial, manufacturing, utility, hotel, computer, healthcare, food distribution and sports organizations.
The majority of Mr. Lewis’s time is devoted to alternative dispute resolution procedures, litigation and appellate practice involving federal and state anti-discrimination and fair housing laws, the Railway Labor Act, the Civil Rights Acts, the Federal Reserve Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and wrongful discharge, individual employment contract, trade secret, non-competition and work-related tort claims.
Mr. Lewis also has defended insurance companies and retailers against claims that their policies and practices discriminate against minority customers or have an unlawful disparate impact on them. Recently, he won an appeal involving 25 insurance companies that allegedly discriminated against minorities by charging higher base rates for homeowners insurance in Ohio’s major metropolitan areas. Mr. Lewis has participated in more than 70 cases before federal and state appellate courts presenting important issues regarding arbitration agreements, class actions, federal preemption, federal removal jurisdiction, wiretapping, employment claims, civil rights, regulatory and constitutional law.
Mr. Lewis is an elected member of The American Law Institute and a Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers. In addition, he is a Master Bencher in the William K. Thomas Inn of Court.
Mr. Lewis is listed in Who’s Who in America, 1994-2009; Who’s Who in American Law, 2002-2009, The Best Lawyers in America, 1995-2009, and in the Chambers USA Guide of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He was also named an “Ohio Super Lawyer,” 2004-2009.
Mr. Lewis is a frequent speaker and author on employment and anti-discrimination law topics, including class actions, disparate impact analysis, workplace harassment, electronic communications and the workplace and defamation law. He addressed the topic of “Class Actions” at the 6th Annual Northern Ohio Labor & Employment Law Conference held by the Cleveland Bar Association and he is the author of the Employment Practice Self-Assessment Guide, published by Aegis Insurance Services, Inc.
His most recent articles include “Opinion and Rhetorical Hyperbole in Workplace Defamation Actions: The Continuing Quest for Meaningful Standards,” 52 DePaul L. Rev. 19 (2002); “I Know What You E-mailed Last Summer,” Security Management, January 2002 at 93; “Whistleblower Job Protection and Other Employment Provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,” Cleveland Bar Journal, March 2003 at 4; and “Shadows Still Shroud Alien Tort Statute,” Midwest In-House, January 2005 at 14.
Mr. Lewis is a member of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Ohio State Bar Association and the Section of Labor & Employment Law and Committee on Equal Employment and Opportunity Law of the American Bar Association.