Experienced labor and employment attorney Jennifer Phillips joins McDonald Hopkins

CLEVELAND — Jennifer Phillips has joined McDonald Hopkins LLC as a Member in the Litigation Department, adding her experience and expertise to the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group in Cleveland.

Phillips’ practice focuses on labor and employment counseling, litigation, and dispute resolution for businesses in a wide range of industries, including insurance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, food/beverage, finance, and transportation, as well as in the public sector. She counsels on and defends her clients against claims in state and federal courts, and before administrative agencies, involving all areas of labor and employment law, including harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and alleged violations of the FMLA, the ADA, the ADEA, the FLSA, and OSHA. She also counsels employers on organized labor matters, including union avoidance, the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, labor arbitrations, and the resolution of grievances, work stoppages, and campaigns. In addition to her litigation practice, Phillips advises leadership and human resource management and personnel on developing employee handbooks, employment contracts, including non-competition, non-solicitation, confidentiality, and trade secret protection provisions, termination and severance agreements, and affirmative action plans. She also has experience providing management training on harassment, discrimination and wage and hour compliance.

Phillips’ practical, risk-based and business-focused approach to providing legal counsel stems in part from her years serving in in-house counsel leadership roles. Her experience includes serving as Director of Litigation and Assistant General Counsel for a publicly traded specialty retail jeweler and as Vice President, Associate Counsel-Human Resources for a publicly traded financial service company.

Phillips earned her J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She earned an M.N.A.L. in nonprofit administration and leadership from Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Public Affairs and Education and a B.S. from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

She can be reached at 216.348.5402 and jphillips@mcdonaldhopkins.com.