Y. Jed Charner

Jed Charner is an associate in the Washington, D.C. Region office of Jackson Lewis P.C. He represents employers in employment litigation and workplace law matters, including preventive advice and counseling.

Jed’s practice is largely focused on defending complex wage and hour class and collective actions and single plaintiff cases in state and federal courts. He has substantial experience representing a wide variety of clients and industries in complex wage and hour matters, including companies in the healthcare, construction, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, retail, and education industries, among others. Jed’s wage and hour practice varies from defending single plaintiff claims to large class and collective actions involving thousands of employees.

Jed has defended employers on a variety of substantive wage and hour claims, including exemption classifications, independent contractor classification, compensability of time, clock rounding, tip credits, calculations of overtime wages, and other claims. He leverages his experience defending class and collective claims to assess cases at an early stage and develop strategies for defeating class/collective certification, limiting damages exposure, and steering appropriate cases towards early resolution.

Jed also routinely advises clients across a broad range of industries on compliance with federal, state, and local wage laws. His wage and hour advice and counsel practice varies from answering single, discrete questions regarding employee compensation to performing broad wage and hour audits analyzing large departments or entire workforces.

Jed is a member of Jackson Lewis’s Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity practice group. As a member of the Privacy Litigation team, he works with the rest of the team to defend clients against claims, including class actions, brought in various jurisdictions related to data breaches, the use of website tacking technologies, personal information collection, and methods for communicating with customers, patients, clients, and employees. He also advises clients, including healthcare providers, on compliance with the complex federal and state laws and regulations that govern privacy and security of employee and patient information.

Jed’s general employment litigation practice varies and includes defending employers against discrimination, retaliation, breach of contract, FMLA, defamation, and a variety of other claims.

Jed also is experienced at advising clients on various other employment matters, including terminations and discipline, Performance Improvement Plans, disability and religious accommodations, FMLA and leave issues, OSHA compliance, and workplace investigations. He has developed and delivered training courses to management clients on the laws of religious accommodations in the workplace, restoration of injured employees to duty, disciplinary procedures, compliance with anti-discrimination laws, and OSHA whistleblower complaints.

Prior to joining Jackson Lewis, Jed was an attorney at the United States Postal Service, the nation’s second largest employer, where he tried more than 20 administrative employment hearings before United States District Courts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit Systems Protection System (MSPB), and Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC). At the Postal Service, he independently managed a large caseload of employment litigation matters, including conducting all facets of discovery, motions practice, hearings, appeals, mediations, and negotiation and drafting of settlement agreements.

Jed also has represented clients in workplace safety and OSHA matters, including OSHA inspections, negotiating post-citation settlements at informal conferences with OSHA Area Directors, and contesting and litigating citations.

Following graduation from law school, Jed served as a law clerk for the Honorable Robert A. Zarnoch at the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. There, he prepared drafts of dozens of judicial opinions on a variety of legal issues.

During law school, Jed was a member of the Business Law Society. Through the school’s Appellate and Post-conviction Advocacy Clinic, he briefed and argued an appeal before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The arguments that Jed presented ultimately led to a decision from the Maryland Court of Appeals concerning authentication of video and photographic evidence in Maryland courts. See Washington v. State, 179 Md. App. 32 (2008) (holding that trial court erred in admitting into evidence unauthenticated videotape and photographs, but finding error harmless), rev’d, 406 Md. 642 (2008) (finding error not harmless and reversing criminal conviction). He also has drafted appellate briefs in other cases that led to reversals of lower court decisions.

Honors and Recognitions

• The Best Lawyers in America©, “Ones to Watch: Litigation – Labor and Employment” (2021-present)