Michael McMenamin

Areas Of Emphasis

Labor and Employment

Mike's labor and employment law experience includes the following:

• Obtained verdicts in favor of employers in wrongful discharge actions in a jury trial in an Ohio court and a jury trial in a Mississippi court. Klasson v. Park Corporation, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Case No. 197298; Rorie v. Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, County Court of Lee County, Miss., Case No. 4,144.
  
  
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of the employer in a disability discrimination lawsuit. Durst v. Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Case No. 3:00-CV-7339 (2001).
  
  
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of a plastic surgeon who was sued by a former nurse who claimed that she was constructively discharged after she filed a breast implant lawsuit against Dow Corning and that she was subject to sexually hostile work environment. The summary judgment decision was upheld on appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. Takach v. American Med. Tech. (1998), 128 Ohio App.3d 457; discretionary appeal allowed, Takach v. American Med. Tech., 82 Ohio St.3d 1482, appeal dismissed, Takach v. American Med. Tech., (1999), 85 Ohio St.3d 1213.
  
  
• Obtained summary judgment for TRW, Inc. in ERISA action filed by United Auto Workers seeking payment of supplemental unemployment benefits to employees of former TRW division. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), et al. v. Argo-Tech Corporation, et al., U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio, Case No. 1:89-CV-1925.
  
  
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of a national convenience store chain in a Title VII action brought by a discharged employee who claimed she was a victim of racial discrimination. Howard v. Dairy Mart Convenience Stores, U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio, Case No. 1:91 CV 2239.
  
  
• Successfully defended a Storer Cable System in New Jersey against unfair labor practice charges filed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers over the discharge of an employee who had engaged in union organizing activities. CATV, 279 NLRB 1081.
  
  
• Persuaded an NLRB Regional Director to dismiss charges brought against a major rubber company alleging that the company was a successor to the unionized company that had previously owned the facility and assets of the newly opened plant in Guntersville, Alabama. In addition, the Regional Director dismissed charges claiming a discriminatory refusal to hire brought by several union employees of the former owner who were not hired by the new company. Hercules Rubber Company, NLRB Case Nos.10-CA-29175 and 10-CA-29188.
  
  
• Twice managed successful union elections campaigns for Cooper Tire & Rubber Company in Tupelo, Mississippi where over 70 percent of the employees voted "no" to representation by the United Rubber Workers in the first case and over 66 percent voted "no" in the second case.
  
  
• Assisted a number of smaller employers throughout Ohio in overcoming union organizational campaigns and in defending election objections and unfair labor practice charges brought by the defeated union in connection with their failed organizing attempts.
  
  
• Persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a trial court decision in favor of an age discrimination plaintiff. The Sixth Circuit found the lower court's decision to be "clearly erroneous" and held that the plaintiff was legitimately discharged when his job was eliminated as a result of a corporate reorganization. Brownlow v. Edgecomb Metals Company, 867 F.2d 960 (6th Cir. 1989).
  
  
• Persuaded a Regional Director for the NLRB to dismiss unfair labor practice charges brought by the Union alleging numerous underlying claims of bad faith bargaining. Hercules Tire & Rubber Company, Case No. 8-CA-32348-1.
  
  
• Successfully defended a Storer Cable system in Willingboro, New Jersey against charges of bad faith bargaining filed by the IBEW. Storer Communications, Inc., 297 NLRB No. 43.
  
  
• Successfully defended a subsidiary of Dairy Mart before the NLRB against unfair labor practice charges filed by the Teamsters. The NLRB held that Dairy Mart was entitled to withdraw the final offer made to the Teamsters before a strike and to submit lesser proposals to the Union once the employer had successfully weathered the strike. The Lawson Company, NLRB Case Nos. 8-CA-19115 and 8-CA-19116.
  
  
• Persuaded an administrative law judge to dismiss charges against a national nursing home chain attempting to enjoin the company from maintaining a libel lawsuit brought by the company against the Service Employees International Union with respect to defamatory statements made by the Union during the course of its corporate campaign against the Company. Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services, Inc., 1997 NLRB LEXIS 389.
  
  
• Overturned a jury verdict in favor of an age discrimination Plaintiff who was terminated by the Lawson Company during a reduction in force. The Sixth Circuit held that there was no evidence that the Plaintiff had been terminated for any reason other than the one offered by the Company, i.e., an economically motivated reduction in force. Ridenour v. The Lawson Company, 791 F.2d (6th Cir. 1986).
  
  
• Successfully appealed a decision of an Ohio Common Pleas Court refusing to enjoin trespassing by union organizers on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction to enjoin such activity. The Court of Appeals held that federal labor law does not preempt the authority of Ohio Courts to enforce Ohio's trespass laws against non-employee union organizers violating a no-solicitation ban on company property. Lawson Milk Co. v. Retail Clerks Union, 59 Ohio App.2d 207 (1977).
  
  
• Successfully defended two Blankenship cases brought against a subsidiary of the Whittaker Corporation. Prevailed at the trial court level on motions for summary judgment and retained the victories on appeal to the Sixth Circuit. Severo v. Whittaker, U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio, Case No. C87-396A; and Hill v. Whittaker, U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio, Case No. C88-1839.
  
  
• Obtained preliminary and permanent injunctions against a former division manager of a major computer soft-ware consulting company prohibiting him from working for a competitor in Florida or Ohio in violation of restrictive covenants contained in his employment agreement. Systemation v. Thomas E. Hoshko, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Case No. 89285.
  
  
• Successfully defended an ERISA lawsuit v. TRW Inc., both in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and in the Sixth Circuit. Plaintiff had claimed that TRW wrongfully withheld retirement benefits from him. Hribar v. TRW, U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio, Case No. C81-92.
  
  
• Persuaded a federal district court to order the plaintiff in a wrongful discharge case to submit his dispute to the company's internal grievance procedure. The court later enforced the grievance panel award upholding the discharge and dismissed the lawsuit. Betts v. Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21190 (N.D. Miss. 1994).
  
  
• Won summary judgment for a large convenience store chain in a lawsuit brought by a former employee who claimed he was discharged for failing a polygraph test in violation of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act. Gentile v. Dairy Mart Convenience Stores, Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, Case No. 94-3662.
  
  
• Successfully defended employers in over 100 labor arbitrations in Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi and Ohio during the past thirty-five years.

Education

University of Pennsylvania Law School, LL.B., 1968
Case Western Reserve University, B.A. (with honors), 1965

Licensed to Practice

• All Ohio courts
• U.S. District court (Northern District of Ohio)
• U.S. Court of Appeals (Third Circuit) (Fourth Circuit) (Fifth Circuit) (Sixth Circuit) (D.C. Circuit)
• U.S. Supreme Court
• Pro Hac Vice admissions in state and federal courts in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

Areas of Practice