John B. Langel is a partner in the Litigation Department, partner-in-charge of the Labor and Employment Group, and a member of the Health Care, Insurance, and Higher Education Groups. His practice focuses primarily on the representation of employers in a wide variety of labor and employment matters. Mr. Langel represents employers in employment litigation, including the preparation and trial of employment discrimination, restrictive covenant/trade secret, and breach of employment contract cases. He also represents employers in labor matters before the National Labor Relations Board and state labor boards, including unfair labor practices, representation matters, and jurisdictional disputes, and in labor negotiations and arbitrations.
Mr. Langel's practice includes legal advice, training, and policy development concerning labor and personnel issues, including sexual-harassment and union-free training, wage and hour investigations, preparation of employment contracts and restrictive covenants, planning of early-retirement and reduction-in-force programs, and implementation and related litigation involving the labor implications in mergers, acquisitions, and asset purchases.
Mr. Langel's clients include companies in a wide variety of industries, including biosciences, heavy industry, financial services, colleges and universities, and health systems and other health care providers. Mr. Langel practices sports law as well. He has represented professional athletes, college and professional coaches, general managers, broadcasters, and the players on U.S. national teams.
Mr. Langel has a proud history of counseling colleges and universities for more than three decades, including the longstanding representation of several Philadelphia-area educational institutions. For Temple University (Mr. Langel's fondly remembered first client, more than 33 years ago), he has served as counsel to the chief negotiator in talks with 13 different bargaining units, successfully led challenging negotiations during the faculty strikes of 1987 and 1990, and is currently on the university's negotiating team in contract discussions with the Temple Association of University Professionals. Mr. Langel also led the Ballard Spahr team that successfully represented the University of Pennsylvania before the NLRB in connection with Penn graduate students' attempts to organize. Cornell University retained the same team when its graduate students sought to organize.
Mr. Langel is a member of Ballard Spahr's Elected Board.
Judicial Clerkships
Hon. Daniel H. Huyett III, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania