Jim is co-chair of the firm's Labor and Employment Department and has more than 25 years experience representing management in all aspects of the employment relationship. He has extensive trial and appellate litigation experience in the arbitral, administrative, and judicial systems. Jim's practice includes:
- union organizing campaigns
- collective bargaining, strikes, and labor arbitration
- employment discrimination and wrongful discharge issues
- the employment implications of mergers, acquisitions, relocations, and other major transactions
- employment, non-disclosure, and non-competition agreements
- multi-employer benefit plan issues, including serving as management plan counsel and representing participating employers in withdrawal liability avoidance planning and withdrawal liability and contribution disputes
- labor-related antitrust issues
Jim has particular experience in the transportation and logistics industry, including air, rail, trucking and shipping (both ocean and inland); public transit; stevedoring and marine terminal operations; and warehousing and distribution.
Jim was a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath. Before entering private practice, he served as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Francis L. Van Dusen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In law school, Jim served as Editor-in-Chief of the Villanova Law Review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and received the Hyman-Goodman Award for Outstanding Academic and Extracurricular Achievement.
Podcast
Compensation in the Evolving Workplace
The Fair Labor Standards Act, adopted in 1938, was created in an era when there was a clear line between salaried managers and hourly workers. Since then, technology has enabled new models for employee productivity, such as telecommuting, while globalization and other competitive pressures are requiring employers to manage their workforce more creatively than ever before. James Matthews, partner at Philadelphia-based law firm Fox Rothschild, and Bernard Anderson, senior management fellow at Wharton and assistant secretary of labor during the Clinton administration, discuss the role of the FLSA in today's rapidly changing work environment.
Learn more and listen to the podcast.
• Martindale-Hubbell "AV" rated
• Selected as a "Super Lawyer" by Philadelphia Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine (2008 and 2009)
• Selected as a Corporate Counsel Super Lawyer in Labor & Employment (2009)
• Selected for inclusion in "The Best Lawyers in America" in the area of Labor and Employment Law (2008 and 2010)