Biography
John L. Thurman is an AV-rated attorney and a founding partner of Farrell & Thurman, P.C. He has represented clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the United States and regularly serves as local counsel to attorneys from other states.
Mr. Thurman's practice focuses on advising business and non-profit institutions on employment, corporate governance, and First Amendment issues. He routinely provides guidance on employee discipline, terminations, re-organizations and facility closures, disability accommodation, leave compliance, responses to allegations of harassment and discrimination, and wage and hour disputes. He prepares and reviews employee handbooks, personnel policies, and commercial contracts. He also provides in-house training, investigations, and general human resources legal support.
In addition to working with businesses and non-profits, Mr. Thurman regularly advises executives and employees on contracts, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and illegal conduct at work. His experience also includes initiating and successfully settling qui tam claims.
Mr. Thurman received his Juris Doctrate from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1984 followed by a Fulbright-Hays fellowship at the Indian Law Institute in New Delhi. Upon returning tot he United States, Mr. Thurman clerked for the Hon. Edward H. Johnstone, (Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky) and the Hon. Morton I. Greenberg (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit). He has been active in both the New Jersey and American Bar associations, is a past chair fo the N.J. Federal Practice and Procedure Section, has served on the Lawyers Advisory Committee for the D.N.J., has served on the editorial boards of the ABA's Tort Trial & Insurance Law Journal and other publications, and has served on merit-selection committees for Article I Judges. In addition to editing, co-authoring, and contributing to books and journals about employment law and federal practice, from 1994 through 2012, Mr. Thurman led seminars on EEO compliance and complaint investigations for the Rutgers Center for Management Development.