Dedicated To Serving The Needs Of Management.
The lawyers of Scott, Scriven & Wahoff LLP are dedicated to providing high-quality legal representation in a cost-effective manner to public and private employers throughout Ohio. Committed to exclusively serving the needs of management, we understand the legal problems employers face and strive to creatively solve those problems. Our manageable size, our commitment to representing employers and our highly qualified attorneys are a combination that allows us to provide unparalleled representation for our clients.
Labor & Employment Law Practice
Scott, Scriven & Wahoff LLP attorneys practice traditional management-side labor law, such as negotiations, arbitrations, union avoidance, unfair labor practice charges, and other traditional labor law matters. We defend claims and lawsuits before state and federal courts and agencies on a variety of matters, including wrongful discharge and discrimination cases of all types under Title VII, the ADEA, ADA and parallel state laws. We counsel employers on wage and hour, COBRA, FMLA, ADA, plant closing-WARN Act issues, United States Department of Transportation, and personnel issues. In addition to our extensive private sector practice, we represent counties, cities, school districts, Boards of MR/DD and other public entities. Collective Bargaining is a mainstay for our practice. We have negotiated hundreds of contracts with the Ohio Education Association, Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Association of Public Sector Employees and other labor unions. In addition, our attorneys have negotiated agreements with the United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, and the Glass, Molders and Pottery Union and have handled hundreds of arbitrations against unions in the private sector. Our attorneys are experienced in traditional bargaining, concentrated bargaining, interest-based bargaining, and hybrids of these approaches. We regularly grapple with difficult bargaining topics, including school finance, reductions in force, insurance, retirement incentives, and fringe benefits.
Education Law Practice
Our education law practice contains five partners, Greg Scott, Don Scriven, Jim Stucko, Julie Martin and Patrick Schmitz, four associates, Jennifer Stiff, Julia Bauer, Jessica Philemond, Derek Haggerty and two administrative assistants devoted to the practice. Our attorneys have a very broad school law practice, combining a comprehensive labor and employment practice with expertise in various education law issues. The depth and breadth of our attorneys' experience enables us to understand public education clients and the issues faced by today's boards of education and their administrators. We focus on front-end solutions and strategies to resolve potential conflicts. When conflicts cannot be avoided, we engage in problem-solving and provide practical real-world solutions to the problems our clients encounter. Our firm is sensitive to the financial constraints school districts face, and we actively work with clients to provide cost-effective solutions to complex problems. We represent school districts on a multitude of issues including collective bargaining with unions, grievance arbitrations, student discipline disputes, special education issues, school-related constitutional issues, equal employment opportunity claims before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, unfair labor practice and representation proceedings before the State Employment Relations Board, workers' and unemployment compensation claims, school and employment-related litigation, occupational safety and health issues, school territorial transfer issues, property valuation issues before county boards of revision and the State Board of Tax Appeals, public records issues and the sunshine law. Our clients view us as trusted counselors who provide guidance and advice to navigate the legal, political, public relations and financial aspects of legal disputes. We provide counsel by reviewing, drafting and negotiating contracts including lease agreements and real estate agreements. We also regularly advise districts on matters related to the sale of school property, the acquisition of property, and competitive bidding procedures.
Workers' Compensation, Ohio VSSR, OSHA & Intentional Tort Litigation Defense Practice
Our health & safety group contains three partners, Bill Wahoff, Tim Cowans and Rich Goldberg, who are Board Certified in Workers' Compensation by the Ohio State Bar Association Board, five associates, Karla Soards, Lacey Cain, Brad Howenstein, Bill Creedon and Nelva Smith, four legal assistants, and three administrative assistants devoted to the practice. Bill Wahoff, Tim Cowans and Rich Goldberg have been listed as Ohio Super Lawyers in Workers' Compensation. Our attorneys regularly travel to and take workers' compensation hearings statewide at all twelve district offices of the Ohio Industrial Commission. We have had court cases pending in counties in Geauga, Auglaize, Union, Franklin, Montgomery, Clark, Coshocton, Tuscarawas, Williams, Washington, Hamilton, Lucas, Cuyahoga, Medina, Summit, Stark, Mahoning, Ashtabula, Scioto, Logan, Allen, Richland, Ashland, Washington, Shelby and many counties in between, in all regions of the state. Based in Columbus, we have excellent and regular access to the Self-Insured Section of the Bureau to informally or formally handle any issues that might arise, such as grant of coverage, mergers, renewal of coverage, special Adjudication Committee or self-insured committees' hearings, and to manage responses to complaints and audits. We provide our clients with on-site training of claims specialists, executives, middle managers or front-line supervisors, with a schedule to accommodate continuous operations. In the OSHA arena, Bill Wahoff, Greg Scott and Tim Cowans have significant experience defending and counseling employers, with support from experienced associates. In particular, Bill Wahoff has negotiated agreements with OSHA Directorates in Washington, D.C. and defended citations in the airborne contaminants, combustible dust, lockout/tagout, machine guarding, egress, fire safety, safety programs, and other areas in Ohio, Georgia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Texas and California (Cal/OSHA).
