James F. Ehrenberg is an associate in Barnes & Thornburg's Labor and Employment Law Department in Indianapolis, Indiana. He regularly defends employers in matters alleging wrongful discharge, discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment, breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, unpaid wages, and other employment-related claims.
Prior to joining Barnes & Thornburg, Mr. Ehrenberg served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Harry Lee Hudspeth, Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. Following his clerkship, he accepted a position with the Illinois Attorney General. As an assistant attorney general, Mr. Ehrenberg represented the State of Illinois in a wide variety of matters and routinely appeared before federal, state, and administrative tribunals. Perhaps most notably, he composed the opposition to class certification in a Pregnancy Discrimination Act lawsuit which alleged that Illinois had discriminated against 55,000 female state employees by permitting them to enroll in a healthcare plan that did not cover prescription contraceptives for family-planning purposes. Mr. Ehrenberg left the Illinois Attorney General in 2006 to join Barnes & Thornburg.
Mr. Ehrenberg received his B.A. magna cum laude from Valparaiso University, his M.A. in English from Penn State University, and his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. At Penn State, he taught composition to college freshman as a lecturer in English. During law school, he authored several chapters in a state class actions treatise and interned for the American Association of University Professors. He is an avid runner and he has completed a number of marathons - including the Chicago Marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., the Twin Cities Marathon in St. Paul/Minneapolis, the Indianapolis Marathon, the Monumental Marathon, and the New York City Marathon.
Mr. Ehrenberg is admitted to practice in Indiana and Illinois courts as well as the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana and the Central and Southern Districts of Illinois.