Michael J. Ossip is the General Counsel of Morgan Lewis and a Partner in its Labor and Employment Practice. Mr. Ossip's practice is devoted exclusively to the representation of management in all facets of employee relations, including the litigation of claims of employment discrimination and wrongful discharge in federal and state courts. He has tried to verdict numerous jury and nonjury cases.
In addition to his litigation experience, Mr. Ossip represents employers before federal, state, and local administrative agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and in arbitration proceedings. He regularly provides advice to employers regarding wage and hour compliance, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) issues, reductions in force, disciplinary matters, the development and administration of human resources policies and procedures, and sexual harassment prevention and investigations. Mr. Ossip also advises employers with regard to the development and enforcement of restrictive covenants and other agreements designed to protect the employer's confidential information and trade secrets.
An active lecturer, Mr. Ossip regularly conducts programs for clients on employment law issues, including sexual harassment, implementing reductions in force, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the ADA, and the FMLA. He is a regular speaker at conferences sponsored by the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (the continuing legal education arm of the Pennsylvania Bar Association). Mr. Ossip has been a course planner of the PBI's annual Employment Law Institute since its inception in 1995.
Mr. Ossip has served as a faculty member of Cornell University's School of EEO Studies, where he taught a course on defending charges of discrimination before the EEOC and other administrative agencies. He has written extensively on the interaction among the ADA, FMLA, and workers' compensation statutes, sexual harassment, the FLSA, and other employment law topics.
From 1979-80, he served as a law clerk for Judge Murray M. Schwartz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Mr. Ossip received his B.S. from Cornell University and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
He is an Editor-in-Chief of the Bloomberg BNA treatise The Family and Medical Leave Act.