George L. Stevens
Practice Areas
Education
- Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D., 2014
- Centre College, B.A., 2011
Bar & Court Admissions
George is an associate in the Vorys Columbus office and a member of the labor and employment group. He has significant experience litigating all types of employment discrimination cases, public accommodation cases, and wage and hour class actions to favorable resolutions for clients of all sizes in federal courts, state courts, and administrative agencies throughout the country. Outside of litigation, he counsels clients on a wide range of issues, including employee termination and discipline, employment contracts, severance and termination agreements, employee and public accommodation, crisis management and response, and reductions in force. He is a frequent speaker on topics including website accessibility, harassment avoidance and workplace civility, public and workplace accommodation, and First Amendment issues in employment.
Notable experiences include:
- Counseling companies on issues and litigation relating to the accessibility of their public-facing websites nationwide
- Obtained judgment on the pleadings for an employer in a putative wage and hour collective and class action in Ohio state court
- Obtained judgment on the pleadings for an employer in a wrongful termination case in Ohio state court
- Obtained dismissal for an employer of a race discrimination case in Ohio state court
- Obtained dismissal for an employer of a race discrimination case in Maryland District Court
- Successful mediation of multiple high value harassment and discrimination cases in state and federal courts
George received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School. While at Vanderbilt, he served as an ambassador for prospective students, served on the executive board of the Phi Delta Phi honors society, and coached youth soccer. He received his B.A. from Centre College. While at Centre, he spent four years as a varsity swimmer, coached youth soccer, and founded a project that rebuilt a community park. He currently serves on the Associate Board of the Greater Columbus Chapter of the American Red Cross, focusing on teaching disaster preparedness and fire safety to elementary school-aged students.
Teaching/Speaking Engagements
- Presenter, “What You Need to Know: Ohio’s New Employment Law Uniformity Act,” February 2021
- Presenter, “eCommerce Litigation: Common Issues & Leading Strategies,” February 2021
- Presenter, In-House Essentials: “Workplace Civility, Off-Duty Conduct, and the First Amendment,” November 2018
Honors & Awards
- Ohio Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Labor & Employment, 2022
News
- 1/4/2022Vorys is pleased to announce that 42 attorneys from the firm have been named either 2022 Ohio Super Lawyers or Rising Stars.
- 10/31/2014Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease is pleased to welcome nine new first-year associates to the firm.
Events
- 7/13/2021Vorys attorneys conducted a presentation at the NRF Retail Law Summit 2021 titled "Ecommerce: Legal Issues Tangled in the Web."
- 2/2/2021Vorys eCommerce litigators Daren Garcia, Martha Motley, John Landolfi and George Stevens hosted a webinar in which they discussed frequently seen types of eCommerce-related litigation that companies face today and best practices for successfully navigating these issues.
Insights
- 4/30/2021In a recent decision, the Eleventh Circuit held that Winn-Dixie did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by operating a website inaccessible to blind individuals.
- 5/11/2020Governor Mike DeWine announced the first stage of Ohio’s plan to reopen hair salons, day spas, nail salons, barbershops and tanning facilities on May 15, 2020.
- 5/8/2020
- Winter 2020Beginning in October 2019, more than a dozen individuals through at least four law firms have filed hundreds of new lawsuits against businesses alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990’s Title III (starting at 42 USC §12101), as well as local New York state (N.Y. Exec. Law Article 15) and New York City Human Rights Laws (starting at N.Y.C. Admin. Code §8-101).
- 10/12/2018This week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter to Congress reaffirming its stance that Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites.
- 6/15/2017This week a federal judge in Florida passed down one of the most historic Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website accessibility decisions to date, finding that Winn-Dixie was liable under the ADA because its website was inaccessible.
- 3/21/2016Employers in Ohio dodged a bullet last week. In a 5-2 ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court decided that a 2006 constitutional amendment increasing the minimum wage did not eliminate previously applicable exclusions and exemptions to the minimum wage requirement.
- 9/14/2015Nelson Cary, a partner in the Vorys Columbus office, and George Stevens, an associate in the Columbus office, co-authored an article for Employment Law360 titled “When Calling The Police Is Permissible Under Labor Law.”
- 8/20/2015Nelson Cary, a partner in the Vorys Columbus office, and George Stevens, an associate in the Vorys Columbus office, co-authored an article for TLNT.com titled “Why the NLRB Ruled That College Football Players Can’t Unionize.”
- 8/7/2015Since 1990, Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has required places of public accommodation to meet certain standards for accessibility by persons with disabilities. The traditional definition of “places of public accommodation” – stores, schools, offices, etc. – has largely remained unchanged since the ADA’s enactment. In April 2016, however, a long-awaited change could see an entirely new frontier fall under the scope of the ADA: websites.
- 4/30/2015Nelson Cary, a partner in the Columbus office and a member of the labor and employment group, and George Stevens, an associate in the Columbus office and a member of the labor and employment group, co-authored an article for TLNT.com titled “Court Won’t Give Legal Relief From NLRB’s ‘Quickie’ Election Rule.”
- 12/15/2014Last Friday, the NLRB issued its long-anticipated “ambush election” or “quickie election” rules. The rulemaking, which followed a long and tortured procedural path, is a major overhaul of the procedures used to conduct secret ballot, union elections. These elections are an important path to union representation, and they will now occur more quickly after the election petition is filed.
- 11/5/2014Voters in four states and two California cities yesterday faced ballot initiatives proposing to raise the state minimum wage. All were passed. Alaska will raise its minimum wage from $7.75 an hour to $8.75 on Jan. 1, 2015, and to $9.75 on Jan. 1, 2016. The measure also provides for automatic yearly increases after 2016 based upon inflation, and further provides for an automatic increase should their minimum wage ever be less than $1 over the federal minimum wage. The measure included language that specifically indicated that tips and gratuities do not count towards a worker’s wage.