James J. Oh – Employment Litigation Attorney – Chicago, Illinois

Attorney Jimmy Oh has seen and done it all (well, almost all), practicing in the employment law space for more than three decades.

Jimmy represents employers in various industries, including health care, insurance, and financial services, in various employment-related matters. His experience includes trying single-plaintiff and class action cases in federal courts around the country alleging violations of trade secret laws and/or non-competes, wage and hour laws, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. He has conducted numerous internal investigations of complaints of harassment, discrimination, whistleblowing, and unequal or unfair pay.

Jimmy provides counsel on compliance with the laws and regulations affecting the workplace, including trade secrets and restrictive covenants, wage and hour, disability accommodation, leaves of absence, affirmative action obligations, and recreational and medical marijuana laws.

He is a member of Epstein Becker Green’s National Employment, Labor & Workforce Management Steering Committee and active on the firm’s Diversity & Professional Development Committee and on the Executive Committee of the firm’s Minority Attorney Forum.

Jimmy has published numerous articles and made presentations on a variety of employment law topics, including restrictive covenants, recreational marijuana, class action certification, compliance with EEO laws, and wage and hour. He is a graduate of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Northwestern University.

Focus Areas

Experience

First-chaired and won a trial of a collective and class action in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, in which special investigators at an insurance company alleged they were misclassified as exempt. Affirmed by the Sixth Circuit.
First-chaired and won a trial in federal court in Anchorage, Alaska, at which a branch manager and a claims adjuster alleged misclassification as exempt under the FLSA.
First-chaired and won a federal jury trial in Atlanta, Georgia, in which the plaintiff alleged disability and age discrimination. Affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit.
First-chaired and won a federal court jury trial in Chicago, Illinois, in which the plaintiff alleged pregnancy discrimination. Affirmed by the Seventh Circuit.
Won dismissal of a case brought by the EEOC and affirmed by the Seventh Circuit in one of the first decisions to apply the new pleading standard set forth in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly.
Represented a hospital system in a high-stakes non-compete matter.
Served on the trial team in the leading case on the doctrine of inevitable disclosure of trade secrets/confidential information.
Guided a hospitality industry client through a nationwide reduction in force of thousands of employees necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in zero litigation.
Protected a major insurance company from wage and hour class actions by implementing a nationwide arbitration program and agreement that includes a class action waiver for the company’s 30,000+ U.S. employees.
Obtained decertification of a nationwide FLSA collective action with thousands of opt-ins, which reduced the settlement value from multi-millions to five figures.
Defended an insurer’s ability to treat its paid-time-off (PTO) plan as an ERISA plan governed by federal law by twice suing the State of California to recognize the client’s PTO plan as an ERISA plan.
Convinced the Southern District of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit that a provision of the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act was preempted by ERISA.
Convinced a U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Arkansas to limit a purported nationwide collective action of claims adjusters to two states and then to grant summary judgment because the claims adjusters were properly classified as exempt administrative employees.
Obtained summary judgment from a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Mississippi on the plaintiff’s claims that he was misclassified as exempt as a commercial lines insurance underwriter and on his age discrimination claim.
Obtained summary judgment from a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York for a Fortune 100 financial services company that two African-American men in IT were not discriminated against because of their race.

Recognition

Chambers USA: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business, Illinois—Labor & Employment (2022)
Illinois Super Lawyers, Employment & Labor (2005 to 2013, 2015 to 2023)
The Legal 500 United States, Workplace and Employment Counseling (2020, 2021); Labor and Employment Disputes (Including Collective Actions): Defense (2021)
Lawyers of Color, “Nation’s Best” (2019)
Diversity & the Bar Magazine, “Rainmaker” (2016)
Martindale-Hubbell, AV^® Peer Review Rating

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