John D. Lynn
We want the best outcome for you, whether that is an excellent severance package, a negotiated settlement or a vigorously prosecuted lawsuit. We are advocates for you, recognized locally and nationally as formidable lawyers.
About
“I was attracted to employment law for a couple of reasons. One is that, unlike many other areas of the practice of law, it offers an endless variety of interesting, sometimes difficult and thorny, legal problems to solve. The other reason, more important, is that it gives me the opportunity to help people who need it the most — the insulted and the injured who would otherwise lack any remedy for wrongs committed against them by powerful institutions.”
John D. Lynn is a gifted appellate attorney who has represented employees for more than 25 years in federal and state appellate courts. He argues regularly before the Missouri Supreme Court and the Seventh and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeal, and has been the author of appellate briefs in numerous important state and federal employment cases.
John has handled appeals upholding judgments for employees in the amount of $1,300,000 for a sexual harassment victim, $2,500,000 in a retaliatory discharge case, $800,000 for a victim of religious and national origin discrimination and $535,000 for women firefighters in a sex discrimination case.
John’s important cases include:
- State ex rel Washington University v. Richardson, in which the Missouri Court of Appeals held that colleges and universities may be held liable under the Missouri Human Rights Act for sexual harassment of students by faculty members.
- Plengemeier v. Thermadyne Industries, in which the Missouri Supreme Court held that employers can be sued for a continuing pay discrimination and promotion denials going back many years.
- Bell v. Dynamite, in which the Missouri Court of Appeals adopted John’s argument that a whistleblower who resigns his job because of intolerable working conditions can bring a suit for wrongful discharge.
- Hewitt v. St. Louis Rams, where the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that as a matter of public policy, the Commissioner of the NFL could not serve as the arbitrator in a case against an NFL football team.
John has also has authored friend of the court briefs in Missouri employment law cases where important principles of law were established:
- In State ex rel. Diehl v. O’Malley, the Missouri Supreme Court held that an employee has the right to a jury trial under the Missouri Human Rights Act
- In Fleshner v. Pepose Vision Institute, P.C., the Court held that a whistleblower can win a Missouri wrongful discharge case by proving that his opposition to illegal conduct was a contributing factor in the decision to fire him.
Education
- B.A.,Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 1976
- J.D., New York University School of Law, 1979
Court Admissions
- State of Missouri
- United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri
- United States District Court, Southern District of Illinois
- United States District Court, Central District of Illinois
- United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
