Key to assessing a lawyer’s ability, quality, and performance is how colleagues in the legal profession "rate" that lawyer. Based on analyses from other lawyers, particularly employment and labor lawyers, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, for instance, has listed Gene in all of its editions — from its first to its most recent — and named him among the top employment and labor attorneys in Pennsylvania and termed him a "Pennsylvania Leader." Based on similar input from fellow lawyers and also from clients, Gene is listed in such publications as The Best Lawyers in America (2007-2015) and The US Legal 500; and Philadelphia Magazine each year has termed Gene a "Pennsylvania Super Lawyer" and he is also listed in Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition and Super Lawyers Business Edition. Also listing Gene for more than 25 years are publications such as Marquis Who’s Who in American Law.
Gene guides small and not-so-small local, national and international companies on how to best balance employer-employee needs to eliminate employment concerns while maximizing management options. Examples include acquiring, consolidating, relocating, automating, "right sizing," or closing businesses; retaining or regaining union-free status; and negotiating hundreds of agreements with affordable, flexible working conditions critical to global success. Beyond strategic planning and problem avoidance, Gene represents employers before federal and state courts; federal, state and local administrative agencies; arbitrators; and mediators. In 1979, for instance, Gene, then a Reed Smith associate lawyer, convinced the United States Supreme Court to overturn a 9-0 full-bench federal appeals court employment discrimination decision adverse to his employer-client in Novotny v. Great American Federal S&L Assn, 442 U.S. 366 (1979).
He has partnered with employers on most employment and labor laws and issues in almost every industry. Examples include airlines, apparel, automotive, beverage, building management, chemical, construction, education, elevator, entertainment, information systems, financial services, food, health care, metals, not-for-profit, oil, plastics, railroad, religion, retail, sports, technology, and trucking.
Publications by Gene include a synopsis of federal, Pennsylvania, and local employment laws; workplace privacy rights, options, and issues; monitoring use and abuse of the Internet, electronic mail, and voicemail; social media legalities and practicalities; effective internal investigations; acquiring, selling, relocating, automating, or closing businesses; effective employer-employee relationships; hiring and firing; alternative dispute resolution; and maintaining or regaining union-free status. Gene also edits Reed Smith authored blog posts for Forbes.com and Reed Smith’s own blog, Employment Law Watch.
Gene, a citizen of both the United States and the Republic of Ireland, may conduct business here and abroad for U.S. and European Union (EU) employers.
