After graduating from college and law school with honors, Jacob M. Sitman spent a year learning about what it means to be successful in a courtroom by clerking for a civil trial judge. Since that time, he has honed his skills practicing, almost exclusively, Labor and Employment law. He worked at a labor and employment boutique firm, and then at a large Philadelphia law firm for more than a decade. Mr. Sitman is also the former Northampton County Assistant Solicitor for Labor & Employment Matters.
Now as a Shareholder and the Chair of the Firm’s Employment Law & Labor Relations Group, Mr. Sitman represents employers and executives in a wide array of employment law and traditional labor matters. A skilled litigator, Mr. Sitman often represents employers in federal and state court in defense of claims of discrimination, harassment, whistleblower, breach of contract, wrongful discharge and workplace safety claims filed in state and federal courts, with administrative agencies and in arbitration (union grievance, Act 111 and private employment claims), including but not limited to matters filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, EEOC, PHRC, NLRB and OSHA. He has also been successful in wage and hour, noncompete and trade secret litigation and appeals.
Mr. Sitman also counsels and trains business owners, executives and human resource managers in ways to reduce the risk of legal claims and how to make smart, strategic and cost-effective personnel-related decisions. He relies on his varied experience in matters of wage and hour compliance, reductions in force, family and medical leave, sexual harassment avoidance and investigations, employee benefits, disability accommodations, employee health and workplace safety, and labor-management relations, including collective bargaining, alleged unfair labor practice charges and union grievance arbitrations. Mr. Sitman drafts employment and severance agreements, noncompete agreements, employee handbooks and personnel policies of all kinds, including those dealing with social media and employee use of technology in the workplace.
He is an author and frequent speaker on labor and employment law topics for various chambers of commerce and industry trade groups, has been awarded a “preeminent” rating, and is regularly recognized by his peers as one of Pennsylvania’s leading attorneys practicing labor and employment law.
Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba, P.C. is pleased to announce that six attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 2023 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list. In addition, two attorneys were named to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers – Rising Stars Edition. Historically, less than 5% of the lawyers in the state are selected for the coveted distinction of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers. […]
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that it won a hard-fought, long-running wage payment case against Berks County-based East Penn Manufacturing. The case began in 2018, and the recent, 30-day federal trial included the testimony of 39 workers, key witness insights, and volumes of employer time records. Ultimately, the jury found that East […]
Jacob M. Sitman, Chair of FLB’s Employment and Labor Relations Department, successfully defended our client, a construction-industry company, in a federal employment discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation case filed against the company by its former employee. The company’s former welder alleged that he was harassed and unlawfully terminated after he disclosed that he suffered […]
Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba, P.C. is pleased to announce that six attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 2022 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list. In addition, three attorneys were named to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers – Rising Stars Edition. Historically, less than 5% of the lawyers in the state are selected for the coveted distinction of Pennsylvania Super […]
by Jacob M. Sitman and Kendra L. Eden In recent years, employers have increasingly used mandatory arbitration agreements as a tool to manage the risk of various types of employment claims. Claims subject to those agreements are diverted to arbitration, rather than the courts, for resolution. Earlier this month, however, Congress passed a bill dubbed […]