Attorneys in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, New York City

Jeremy V. Farrell
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Jeremy V. Farrell

Experienced management-side employment and litigation lawyer who helps solve legal issues inside and outside the courtroom.

As the deputy chair of Tucker’s litigation department, Jeremy represents businesses in a variety of civil and commercial disputes, with a particular focus on employment law.

Jeremy advocates on employers’ behalf in state and federal courts, private arbitrations, and in administrative investigation and enforcement proceedings before the Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Ohio Civil Rights Commission, and City of Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations.  Some of his more recent cases involved:

  • Winning dismissal of a claim brought by an installation company’s former manager and salesperson that challenged the validity of his non-competition and non-solicitation agreement.
  • Using aggressive preliminary objection strategy to favorably resolve claims by former C-suite executive for wrongful termination and failure to pay incentive compensation and repurchase equity units.
  • Securing dismissal of various federal, state, local administrative claims alleging unlawful retaliation, failure to accommodate, as well as discrimination and harassment based on race, sex, religion, and disability.

Jeremy’s litigation experience gives him the background and perspective needed to guide employers and their managers and HR departments through difficult issues in the workplace, with the goal of helping clients comply with the law and minimize risk in a manner consistent with its overall business philosophy.  For example, he frequently counsels clients on how to:

  • Strengthen employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, severance agreements, employee handbooks, and workplace policies;
  • Comply with family, medical, and sick leave laws and ordinances—including the Family Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Allegheny County Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, and the City of Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act;
  • Effectively respond to employee requests for accommodations due to pregnancy, medical, or religious considerations;
  • Craft compensation structures complying with state and federal minimum wage and overtime laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act as well as wage payment statutes like the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law;
  • Investigate internal complaints of bullying, discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environments that implicate laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disability Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act;
  • Improve non-compete, non-solicit, and non-disclosure agreements;
  • Train managers on implementation of practical compliance and risk-minimization strategies, and
  • Respond to unemployment compensation claims.

Although he works businesses of many sizes in a variety of industries, Jeremy’s clients tend to be focused in the technology, hospitality, nonprofit, and manufacturing industries.

Jeremy is also a pro bono mediator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment section.

Jeremy’s trial work also entails representing clients in litigation involving contract disputes, public utility service, fair housing and other civil rights laws, fraud and misrepresentation, interference with business relationships, and serious personal injury.  He has significant trial experience, serving as first and second chair in a variety of bench and jury trials.  He stays involved in his cases throughout the appellate process and has co-authored briefs before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court prompting that prompted significant legal developments regarding the scope of the attorney-client privilege in derivative litigation and the appropriate scope of new trials on damages.

Representative Experience

Employment Cases

  • Represented a healthcare provider that faced religious and gender discrimination claims from a former employee. He aggressively sought dismissal of the complaint due to its legal deficiencies and used early subpoenas to obtain recordings from underlying unemployment compensation proceedings to find audio that directly contradicted the former employee’s core factual claim, which led to a prompt and favorable resolution of the case.
  • Defended and reached favorable resolution of class and collective action alleging that the franchisee of a national ice cream eatery did not pay certain employees overtime and took improper payroll deductions.
  • Member of trial team who obtained verdict in favor of a landscaping company who was alleged to have terminated one of its managers in retaliation for filing a worker’s compensation claim.
  • Authored briefing that obtained pretrial dismissal of complaint filed by a nursing home’s former employee who claimed she was not an at-will employee and that her termination breached her employment contract, constituted defamation, and violated the Pennsylvania whistleblower law.

Commercial Litigation Cases

  • Member of team that successfully defended a local non-profit organization from demands for years’ worth of privileged attorney-client communications in connection with derivative litigation before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
  • Obtained judgment on behalf of a bank in a lawsuit claiming that it induced its customer to enter a commercial lending transaction by making allegedly fraudulent misrepresentations, and preserved the favorable result through the appeals process.
  • Obtained trial judgment in favor of a local utility company in lawsuit brought by contractor who claimed that the utility wrongfully terminated their contract and that the utility’s associated conduct amounted to unjust enrichment and tortious interference.

Presentations & Publications

  • Recognizing and Avoiding Common HR Mistakes That Could Put Your Organization In Court (Webinar through the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University, March 2022)
  • Allegheny County’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (Webinar presentation through the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, February 2022)
  • The U.S. Supreme Court Stays OSHA’s Vaccine Mandate: What It Means For Employers (Tucker News & Insight post, January 2022)
  • UPDATE: Allegheny County’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance Takes Effect (Tucker News & Insight post, December 2021)
  • Update on Vaccine Mandates (Tucker News & Insight post, December 2021)
  • Do you have to pay remote, non-exempt employees for work time you didn’t know about? (Tucker News & Insight post, August 2020)
  • Until the Ball Drops: Administering FFCRA Paid Leave Throughout the Remainder of 2020 (Pennsylvania Coalition of Affiliated Healthcare & Living Communities, July 2020)
  • Labor & Employment Lunch & Learn Webinar Series (May 2020)
  • Pittsburgh Employers: Don’t Forget About the Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act for Covid-19 Absences! (Tucker News and Insight post, April 2020)
  • New Employer Notice Provisions Under Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Law Will Outlast Covid-19 (Tucker News and Insight post, April 2020)
  • Pittsburgh and COVID-19 Leave Laws (North Shore/Side Chamber of Commerce Webinar)
  • News You Can Use: Developing Trends in Employment Law (2019 Annual SPHRO Symposium)
  • The Nuts and Bolts of Employment Law (Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management, January and November 2019)
  • Understanding and Avoiding Liability Risks Associated with New-Age HR and Employee Handbook Policies(Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management, July 2019; Tucker Arensberg 2019 Labor & Employment Update)
  • Ethics for In-House Counsel: The Attorney-Client Privilege(Tucker Arensberg 2019 In-House Counsel Seminar)
  • Hidden Liability Traps in the Hiring Process: What Employers and Recruiters Need to Know (2018 Annual SPHRO Symposium)