Contact:
Phone: 215-665-3130
Fax: 215-665-3165
Email: james.penny@obermayer.com
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Office:
Philadelphia, PA
One Penn Center, 19th Floor
1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19103-1895

Practice Areas:
Labor Relations and Employment Law

Education:
LaSalle University (BA)
Villanova University School of Law (JD)

Professional/Civic Activities:
American Employment Lawyers Council American Bar Association, Labor Section-EEO and OSHA Committees and Litigation Section
Pennsylvania Bar Association, Labor Section
Philadelphia Bar Association, Labor Section

News and Events:
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James M. Penny, Jr. is a partner with Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP. He is Chairman of the firm’s Labor Relations and Employment Law Department.

Mr. Penny’s practice is directed to the representation of management, with an emphasis on labor and employment litigation, fair employment law, occupational safety and health law and fair housing law. He appears regularly before federal and state trial and appellate courts and administrative agencies in a wide range of matters, including all aspects of employment litigation, federal and state affirmative action compliance, fair housing cases, occupational safety and health issues and labor arbitrations.

He began his career as a Deputy City Solicitor with the City of Philadelphia in the Appeals and Special Litigation Division, where he concentrated on civil rights class action litigation, particularly employment discrimination litigation. He was responsible for several cases of national significance, including Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362(1976), which he successfully briefed and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. That decision reversed the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and made new law limiting the remedial powers of the federal courts.

Mr. Penny writes and lectures frequently. He wrote the “Employers Guide to the Americans With Disabilities Act,” and has lectured to such diverse groups as the American Psychological Association, the Personnel Testing Council of Greater Washington, International Personnel Management Association and the Apartment Association of Greater Philadelphia. He is on the faculty for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's biennial seminar on Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission Practice. Mr. Penny is also named as one of Pennsylvania’s “Super Lawyers” as listed in both Philadelphia magazine and the Law and Politics Magazine, Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from LaSalle University and his Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law. He is presently a member of the Labor sections of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and American Bar Associations. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Law.

Mr. Penny is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fifth, Eleventh and District of Columbia Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania and the Eastern District of Michigan.