Biography

John's practice is concerned with the business of company relationships. His experience covers employer/employee disputes, equal employment arguments, unions, labor contracts, negotiations, and worker's compensation.

After considering architecture, marine biology, and teaching as professions, he wound up in a corporate human relations department, which led quite naturally into the legal field. Being an attorney yields satisfaction "in achieving goals for employers and doing what I can to keep them in business." "After all," he says, "that's what keeps us in business."

John's "other life" is anything but dull. He's a vintage sports car enthusiast, and has raced competitively for the past eleven years (his wife races as well). He was a Pittsburgh Grand Prix champion at Beaverun three years in a row. He also heads the rock band Johnny B and the Accelerators, loves to travel the world, and enjoys big boat sailing with his wife and other couples. "I try to have fun working," he says, "and I try to have fun when I'm not."

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Representative Matters

• Defended clients in employment discrimination claims before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, securing numerous dismissals at both state and federal levels.
• Represented employers in hundreds of labor arbitrations securing employers' management rights and supporting employer disciplinary actions, as well as before the National Labor Relations Board in unfair labor practice and representation cases.
• Represented management in obtaining wildcat and mass picketing injunctions.
• Obtained the reversal of recent decisions by two workers' compensation judges in which the judges had found the client to be a successor to the liabilities of a former plant owner, exposing the client to significant monetary damages for employee hearing loss.
• Obtained the dismissal of multiple unfair labor practice charges filed by a union against the client for allegedly having failed to bargain over the implementation of plant rules.

Professional Affiliations

• Listed in the 2012 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Workers' Compensation Law-Employers
• Allegheny County Bar Association, Member, Finance Committee
• Recognized as an AV® rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell peer review
• Board of Directors, Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Association
• Advisory Board, Lightening Wrench Software, LLC

Background

• 2008  Metz Lewis Brodman Must O'Keefe LLC
  Chairman, Employment and Labor Group
• 1992  Bechtol and Lee, P.C.
• 1979  Partner, Reed Smith Shaw & McClay
• 1974  Director-Industrial Relations, Levinson Steel Company
• 1980-1992 Adjunct Professor of Industrial Relations, St. Francis University
• 1980-1992 Adjunct Professor, La Roche College