Chair, Employment & Labor
CONTACT INFORMATION
215.564.8065 jbloom@stradley.com Download V-Card		Office(s): Philadelphia, PA

Jonathan Bloom focuses his practice on employment and labor law, representing public and private companies, governmental entities and executives in all aspects of employment law and litigation. Mr. Bloom is a member of the Board of Directors of Meritas, an international affiliation of law firms in 200 markets in the United States and worldwide, and currently serves on its Executive Committee as vice chair.

As an employment lawyer, Mr. Bloom provides advice and counsel to employers throughout the country (and through our Meritas affiliation, to clients’ business operations around the globe) in a wide range of industries. Mr. Bloom partners with clients to provide direction and step-by-step counsel in an effort to proactively address and manage employment problems. He also lectures on a variety of employment related topics.

Mr. Bloom has extensive experience in a broad array of employment matters under local, state and federal law, appearing before federal and state courts and agencies, including the Department of Labor, the EEOC, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the National Labor Relations Board and in arbitration proceedings. He handles matters involving Title VII, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, whistleblower laws, defamation, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, breach of contract, restrictive covenants and trade secrets, pay to play practices and executive transition issues. He regularly provides advice to employers regarding reductions in force, disciplinary and termination matters, hiring, compensation, wage and hour compliance, the development and administration of human resources policies, Internet and e-mail issues, sexual harassment prevention and investigations, other internal complaints and investigations, union-related issues, affirmative action, drug testing, workplace violence, employment issues involved in mergers and acquisitions, executive employment issues and other issues involving employees.

Mr. Bloom also has an active practice representing parties in so-called “employee departure” or “competition” cases, litigating non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements, along with trade secret issues. Mr. Bloom regularly advises employers with regard to the enforcement of restrictive covenants and other agreements designed to protect the employer’s confidential information and trade secrets. He represents clients in both litigated and non-litigated matters involving movement of employees between competitors, appropriation of trade secrets, flipping customers, employee “raiding,” and the drafting and negotiation of employment and other agreements containing restrictive covenants. Clients call on Mr. Bloom when their employees leave to form a competitive business, join a competitor or solicit business and when hiring a competitor’s employees. He also designs agreements, policies and procedures aimed at protecting the client’s intellectual property, confidential information and relationships with the client’s customer base and workforce. Mr. Bloom’s substantial employee departure/restrictive covenant practice serves clients in many industries, including health care, insurance, financial services, manufacturing, communications, education, retail and others.

Because of his litigation and employment management experience, Mr. Bloom takes a business-oriented approach to the unique legal issues that arise in the workplace, achieving solutions that minimize liability and control the ever-increasing costs of litigation. He is a member of the firm’s nationally recognized ADR (Mediation & Arbitration) Practice Group and has designed employment ADR programs for clients. Mr. Bloom actively promotes ADR strategies (including mediation), where appropriate, both prior to and during litigation, to achieve the clients’ business objectives in a cost-effective way.

Mr. Bloom also represents Pennsylvania’s Senate and House of Representatives, Legislative Leaders and individual legislators on a wide variety of high profile cases to protect the Legislature’s institutional interests. His constitutional litigation work has included defending the Pennsylvania Legislative Branch, in a variety of contexts, including the establishment of gaming in Pennsylvania, the institution of hate crime legislation, judicial and legislative pay raises, the reform of property tax schemes, the constitutional amendment process, child witness testimony, the right to a jury trial and bail, statewide court funding issues, legislators’ free speech rights, disputes involving the Sunshine Law legislative speech or debate privilege, and numerous other legislative challenges. He has appeared and argued before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in numerous constitutional matters.

Some of Mr. Bloom’s more notable employment cases include: 

• defending a financial brokerage company in federal court against claims of race discrimination 
  
  
• defending an international engineering firm against claims of sexual harassment 
  
  
• spearheading the defense of a preliminary injunction action involving claims of unfair competition, breach of restrictive covenants and misappropriation brought against a national medical testing company by its chief competitor; the case involved each company’s hiring of the other’s employees and re-affiliation of entire offices nationwide 
  
  
• prosecuting on behalf of a national insurance brokerage company a restrictive covenant action non-competition action against former employees who started up a competing business and solicited clients and employees 
  
  
• defending a health care system against wage and breach of contract claims by a physician whose practice the health system had acquired 
  
  
• representing a National Football League franchise in employment-related litigation and other legal actions 
  
  
• defending employers in wage claims, both individual claims and as class actions, under Pennsylvania’s Wage Payment and Collection Law
  
  
• spearheading the defense of a multidefendant Fair Labor Standards Act collective/class action 
  
  
• defending an officer of a bankrupt national weight-loss company in a class action brought by former employees seeking monies owed under the company’s profit- sharing plan 
  
  
• defending, as local counsel, several National Hockey League teams against a former player’s breach of contract claim

PERSONAL

Mr. Bloom began his career as a clerk for the Hon. Judge Mitchell H. Cohen of the U. S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.