A. John Harper II

Senior Counsel

A. John Harper II is senior counsel in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice. Mr. Harper's practice includes the exclusive representation of employers in labor and employment law matters and litigation under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Employee Income Retirement Security Act (ERISA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Railway Labor Act (RLA), and other state and federal laws impacting employment relations.

Mr. Harper's experience includes union-organizing efforts, collective-bargaining negotiations, union-contract administration, strikes, and other union-related matters; litigation under various federal and state laws involving employee-employer issues such as age, race, or sex discrimination claims; ERISA claims and claims of wrongful or retaliatory discharge; and other state law tort claims such as defamation, invasion of privacy, and tortious interference with contract. Mr. Harper regularly counsels and advises employers concerning compliance with and issues under all applicable state and federal laws, including issues arising in mergers and acquisitions, plant closings, and reductions.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Mr. Harper served as of counsel at an international law firm, where he was also head of the Labor and Employment Law Department during his partnership there.

Mr. Harper has spoken frequently and published papers in numerous ABA National Institutes, the Southwestern Legal Foundation Institute on Labor and Employment Law, and in meetings of the American Bar Association's Committee on Developing Labor Law. He is also the former co-chair of the American Bar Association's Committee on the Development of the Law Under the National Labor Relations Act and the Committee on Institutes and Meetings, a former member of the American Bar Association's Council of the Labor and Employment Section, and a former council member of the Houston Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section.

Mr. Harper received his LL.B., cum laude, from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1967, where he was managing editor of the Journal of Air Law and Commerce and was named to the Order of the Coif. He received his B.A. from the University of North Texas in 1964.

Mr. Harper is admitted to practice in Texas and before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits; the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Western, Eastern, and Northern Districts of Texas; and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also board certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.