About John
A member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Law section, John’s trial experience includes the successful defense as lead counsel of banking, utility, automotive, manufacturing and food service industry employers in over seventy-five bench and jury trials, including one of the first Americans With Disabilities Act cases tried to a jury in Alabama, two of the first ADA cases in the state in which a jury returned a defense verdict based on the absence of an ADA disability, one of the first ADA verdicts for the employer in a mixed motive case, and one of the first ADA harassment cases nationwide. His appellate cases include obtaining the Supreme Court’s reversal of an adverse decision in a strike misconduct case, defending employers successfully in cases defining “direct threat,” “disability,” and “reasonable accommodation” in the Eleventh Circuit, and various causation issues in workers’ compensation benefits cases in state appellate courts. His defense of employers in administrative decisions include successful R and C cases under the National Labor Relations Act (including one hybrid case in which the NLRB found ULPs but declined to set aside an election voting down the union), and favorable decisions setting aside OSHA “wilful” citations involving asbestos at a nuclear plant; a fatality “wilful” citation involving unguarded rollers; a decision in a confined spaces case obtaining a disposition after hearing that reduced numerous repeat violations and $128,000.00 in fines to less than $8,000.00; and numerous decisions involving OSHA warrants and subpoenas. Arbitration decisions include labor decisions rejecting individual discharge grievances and one contract interpretation decision allowing the installation of a production line without seniority bidding for positions; and favorable decisions in individual arbitrations under several employment laws.
He has also counseled clients regarding regulatory compliance, personnel policies, employee handbooks, union organizing and rulemaking involving the ADA, the FMLA, the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Law of 1992, and various regulations related to drug testing and disability management. He has represented The Business Council of Alabama, the Alabama Association of Employers and individual employers in the drafting of both sets of the Americans With Disabilities Act Title I rules, the Family and Medical Leave Act rules, the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Law of 1992, and Department of Industrial Relations rules respecting drug testing. He has offered Friend Of The Court briefs on several employment issues on behalf of the BCA, and one on behalf of the Alabama Retail Association to the U.S. Supreme Court in a key discrimination case.
John is a member of the American Bar Association and its OSHA Subcommittee, the Alabama State Bar (Past Chair, Labor and Employment Section), the State Bar of Georgia and the State Bar of Texas. He is admitted to practice in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Eleventh and Fourth Circuits, U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Texas, the Northern District of Georgia and the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Alabama.
A Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and an elected member to the Management Labor and Employment Roundtable, John is the only Alabama lawyer named to Lawdragon’s 2009 and 2010 Nation’s Top 100 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys, has been named in every Law & Politics’ annual Alabama Super Lawyers Top 50 list, and has been chosen for every edition of the Best Lawyers in America since 1993 and every Chambers USA America’s Leading Business Lawyers edition since its inception.
An adjunct instructor at two law schools, John has authored Disability Discrimination in Employment, (West Publishing 2006); Employment Discrimination in Alabama (Southern University Press, 1991); coauthored Alabama Workers’ Compensation Practice, 1994 Edition, (Guide Publishing, 1994); and authored chapters in the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.’s Occupational Safety and Health Law.
John received his J. D. in 1981 and his A.B., magna cum laude in 1978, both from Duke University. From 1981-82, he served as Law Clerk to The Honorable Donald S. Russell, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
What is your favorite thing about the law? It offers limitless intellectually challenging ways to be of service to others.
What was your first job? Drink opener at Gus’s Hot Dogs in Crestline.
Hobbies? Tennis, writing.
What advice would you give to a young student in law school? Work hard, be honest, give back.