Jason C. Schwartz is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group and its Litigation Department.  Mr. Schwartz serves on the firm’s Hiring Committee and its Career Development Committee.
 
Mr. Schwartz practices primarily in the areas of labor and employment litigation, negotiations, and counseling.  He was ranked as a leader in employment law counseling by The Legal 500 US.  His practice includes the full range of labor and employment matters, including those involving wage-hour and discrimination laws, non-competition agreements and trade secrets, Sarbanes-Oxley and other whistleblower protection laws, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).  He has litigated employment matters in state and federal courts and administrative forums throughout the country, as well as in arbitration, and has represented clients before federal, state and local regulatory agencies.  Mr. Schwartz’s recent representative matters include the defense of national employers in wage-hour class actions, the defense of a major automaker in age, race, gender and disability discrimination and ERISA litigation arising from a reduction in force, and the representation of numerous companies in high-stakes non-compete and trade secrets disputes.  He has also successfully tried several sensitive whistleblower matters for major national employers, and he recently prevailed in a precedent-setting Labor Department appeal of one of the first Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower cases to proceed to trial. 

In addition, Mr. Schwartz regularly counsels local and national employers, presents employment law-related training programs, and negotiates employment and other related agreements.  Mr. Schwartz also has experience representing individuals and corporations in civil and criminal litigation, and in internal corporate investigations.

Mr. Schwartz served as counsel to the Fair Labor Standards Reform Coalition, and he played a leading role in preparing comments on behalf of the business community relating to the U.S. Department of Labor’s new overtime exemption regulations.  He is also a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Labor Relations Committee and its Equal Employment Opportunity Subcommittee, and he participated in the representation of the National Association of Manufacturers in a lawsuit challenging a significant OSHA regulation, the settlement of which is published at 66 Fed. Reg. 66,943 (Dec. 27, 2001). 

Mr. Schwartz has spoken on employment-law related topics to a variety of organizations, including the American Council of Engineering Companies, the Securities Industry Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Bar Association’s Fair Labor Standards Legislation Subcommittee, and the Investment Company Institute.  Mr. Schwartz is also the co-author of the monograph "Saga of Reform: Regulation of Worker Overtime," published by the National Legal Center for the Public Interest in September 2004, and of several articles, including "The Multiple Hats Dilemma:  Application of the Attorney-Client Privilege to In-House Counsel," Vol. 13, No. 4 Insights 12 (April 1999); "Corporate Compliance Programs as a Component of Plea Agreements and Civil and Administrative Settlements," 24 J. Corp. L. 71 (1998); and "Deferred Prosecution:  The Need for Specialized Guidelines for Corporate Defendants," 23 J. Corp. L. 121 (1997). 

Mr. Schwartz earned his law degree magna cum laude from The Georgetown University Law Center, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and received the George Brent Mickum III Prize and the Charles A. Keigwin Award for the best academic record in first year courses.  From 1995 to 1996, Mr. Schwartz worked as a Legislative Assistant to Congressman Jon D. Fox.  Mr. Schwartz received a B.A. degree in international affairs cum laude in 1994 from the George Washington University.

Mr. Schwartz is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Virginia, as well as in numerous federal courts.