James C Pennington

Practice Areas

Practice groups: Employment Law, Higher Education, Traditional Labor Relations, Disability Access, Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution

Industry group: Financial services

Career

James Pennington is a founding member of the Birmingham office of Ogletree Deakins. For more than three decades, he has represented employers in diverse labor and employment law matters, including administrative agency charges, federal and state court litigation, union campaigns and collective bargaining.

James strives to help employers achieve peaceful, productive workplaces. He helps employers avoid workplace disputes by providing management training and developing defensive documentation such as effective employee handbooks, dispute avoidance and resolution policies, and procedures to address and remedy harassment and discrimination. He is well known for helping employers navigate through the difficult intersections of disabilities and leave laws.

James’s litigation experience includes matters such as employment discrimination, disabilities, wage and hour disputes, FMLA, restrictive covenants and trade secrets, labor strikes, executive compensation, employee benefits, first amendment and due process and other constitutional issues. He has also arbitrated many discipline and labor contract arbitration matters before labor arbitrators.

A founder of the firm’s Higher Education Practice Group, James has extensive experience representing colleges and universities in matters related to labor, employment, academic policies and student discipline. He guides higher education institutions through the challenging process of investigating and adjudicating Title IX and other misconduct complaints. He defends institutions’ disciplinary decisions when disappointed parties ask courts to overturn “responsible” findings.

Professional Memberships

American Bar Association (Labor and Employment Section)

Alabama State Bar (Labor and Employment Section)

Birmingham Bar Association

Society for Human Resource Management

National Association of College and University Attorneys