Certified by the Ohio State Bar Association as a Specialist in Labor and Employment Law

Labor & Employment Department, Past Chair

Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group, Chair

• Ohio

• The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, J.D., 1965
• The Ohio State University, B.A., 1962

Defense of unfair labor practices and prosecution of injunctive relief before the National Labor Relations Board; advice and counsel on employment matters involving discrimination, disability and religious accommodation, family and medical leave, employment contracts and at-will employment, mediation, collective bargaining, and individual and multi-party negotiation.

Experience

James has been a trial attorney with the National Labor Relations Board (1965-70). He has extensive collective bargaining experience including plant and work relocations, plant closings, and health care restructuring in the public and private sectors. He has mediated disputes for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the Court of Common Pleas for Hamilton County, Ohio, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Mediation Project and through private referrals.

• University of Cincinnati College of Law Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award, 2008
• AV® Rated, Martindale-Hubbell®
• Selected for inclusion in Ohio Super Lawyers® 2004-2012
• The Best Lawyers in America® 2005-2012
• Who's Who in America® and Who's Who in the World®
• Recipient of Ohio's Friend of Legal Education Award by the Ohio State Bar Association, 2003
• Chambers USA,® America's Leading Business Lawyers 2004-2011
• Who's Who Legal: USA Management Labour & Employment 2006

• Cincinnati Bar Association
• American Bar Association
• Ohio State Bar Association
• Ohio State Bar Association, Past Chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section
• Cincinnati Bar Association, Past Chair of the Labor and Employment Committee
• American Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section and Section on Dispute Resolution
• International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR)
• Association for Conflict Resolution ( formerly Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution)
• College of Labor & Employment Lawyers Fellow
• Potter Stewart Inn of Court, Senior Master of the Bench and Program Chair
• Collaborative Law Center, Incorporator and member, Steering Committee

• National Labor Relations Board Finds Mandatory Arbitration Agreements Unlawful
• Supreme Court Rules the FLSA Prohibits Retaliation Against Employees who Make Oral Complaints
• Staying Union-Free in 2011

Past

• Governor Voinovich’s Operations Improvement Task Force, Member
• The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, National Council
• The Ohio State University College of Law Alumni Association, Past President
• Cincinnatus Association, Past President
• Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses, Past President
• Leadership Cincinnati, Class VII and Steering Committee

James has conducted numerous negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution workshops for major institutions including Federated Department Stores, LensCrafters, PNC Bank, N.A., Lexis-Nexis, Comair, Cincinnati Public Schools, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Robert Morris Associates (a trade association for the banking industry), The Internal Revenue Service, and The Ohio Association of School Business Officials.

Since 1975, James has been an adjunct professor teaching employment discrimination and negotiation in the graduate school and the College of Law at the University of Cincinnati.  He also teaches negotiation at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and Pepperdine University School of Law.  He is a graduate of the Harvard Negotiation Project and in 1991 served as a teaching fellow at Harvard.  Mr. Lawrence has conducted numerous workshops on negotiation, mediation, dispute resolution, and employment discrimination.

“Collaborative Lawyering:  A New Development in Conflict Resolution”
17 Ohio State Journal of Dispute Resolution, No. 2 (February 2002)

“Mediation Advocacy: Partnering with the Mediator”
15 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, No. 2 (Spring 2000)

"Alternative Dispute Resolution:  Legal Developments, Drafting Guidelines and Psychological Benefits"
Labor Law Journal, Vol. 47, No. 6, June 1996

Editor, "Pass the Gavel," a monthly newsletter published by the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University for Ohio judges