Richard R. Renner
Richard Renner is a leading advocate for whistleblowers, with a long record of service for labor organizers and civil rights. He is a member of the Executive Board of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) and a former Co-Chair of NELA's Whistleblower Committee.
Mr. Renner filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of the National Employment Lawyers Association, Ethics and Sanctions Committee in Lucas v. Duncan. 574 F.3d 772 (D.C.Cir. 2009). The brief argued that inferences are key to proving employment discrimination, and it was error for the lower court to impose sanctions for an argument based on inferences. The court agreed and vacated the sanction.
Mr. Renner wrote an an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Stone v. Instrumentation Laboratory Company, 591 F.3d 239 (4th Cir. 2009). The amicus argues for the right of corporate accounting whistleblowers to de novo review in U.S. District Courts. Richard wrote the amicus on behalf of the National Whistleblowers Center and the Government Accountability Project. The Fourt Circuit agreed with the argument, and reinstated the whistleblower claims of David Stone.
Mr. Renner testified to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on why and how it should improve its whistleblower protection programs. His March 4, 2010, testimony is available here.
Mr. Renner is Editor-in-Chief of the Whistleblowers Protection Blog.
http://www.whistleblowersblog.org/
Prior to joining Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto in 2008, Mr. Renner worked for 27 years as a lawyer in Ohio. Mr. Renner advocated for consumers, tenants, the unemployed, and victims of domestic violence as a legal services attorney. In 1995, he joined with Alfred Tate to form the Dover, Ohio, law office of Tate & Renner. After Mr. Tate died later that year, Mr. Renner began representing environmental whistleblowers, successfully trying or setling cases many cases.
As an Adjunct Faculty at Kent State University, Tuscarawas Branch, Mr. Renner taught Mathematics and Environmental Law from 1998 to 2000.
Mr. Renner received the Pillars Club Community Service Award in 1995, the Big Brother of the Year Award from Big Brothers/Big Sisters of East Central Ohio in 2004, and the Tuscarawas County NAACP Freedom Fund Award for the Furtherance of Social Justice in 2008.
Mr. Renner is the author of several articles including: "Federal Environmental Whistleblower Complaints," in, Employee Rights Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer 2002), pp. 29-34, "Whistleblower Book Helps with All Retaliation Cases," a review of Concepts and Procedures in Whistleblower Law, NELA Employee Advocate, Spring 2001, p. 24, and "Federal Whistleblower Complaints," feature article for Ohio Employment Lawyers Association Newsletter, October, 1996.
Mr. Renner served on the program committee for Representing Employees in Whistleblower and Retaliation Cases in Chicago, 2007, and co-presented a plenary session on Department of Labor procedures. Mr. Renner presented "Sarbanes-Oxley and other federal whistleblower protections " to the Ohio Employment Lawyers Association in 2004 and "Informed Consent and the Obligation of Attorneys to Clients" in Akron, Ohio in 1995. He also moderated a seminar on ethics, professionalism and substance abuse for Tuscarawas County Law Library in 2001.
Practice Areas:
• Whistleblower Litigation
• Civil Liberties
• False Claims Act and Qui Tam Litigation
• Employer Retaliation and Unjustified Dismissals
Bar Admissions:
A member of the bar in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Ohio. Mr. Renner is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and District of Columbia Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for Colorado, Maryland, the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, and the District of Columbia.
Education:
• New York University School of Law, J.D., 1981
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B. in Mathematics, 1978