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Lee Tankle is a trusted attorney in Ogletree Deakins’ Philadelphia office who helps employers protect their businesses. His clients—from small businesses to large corporations—turn to him to head off employment disputes and government investigations before they escalate, and to fight aggressively on their behalf when litigation is unavoidable.
Lee litigates complex claims under federal and state statutes, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (PMWA), Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law (WPCL), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), and the common law. He has successfully defended clients against individual, class, and collective action claims—securing dismissals, favorable settlements, and defense verdicts.
He advocates for clients before state and federal courts, as well as administrative agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC), Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Because Lee knows how workplace decisions get tested in litigation, clients rely on him for practical, day-to-day counseling on hiring, discipline, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, medical leaves, reasonable accommodations, and other disability-related issues. He partners with clients to build employment policies and employee handbooks designed to keep them out of court—and to put them in the strongest possible position when claims do arise. Lee also advises on wage and hour compliance (including full-scale pay practice audits and the design of commission and bonus plans), as well as non-competition and non-solicitation agreements.
When sensitive issues surface, clients call on Lee to conduct workplace investigations. He draws on his counseling and litigation background to gather evidence, elicit information from witnesses, assess credibility, and deliver clear, actionable findings. He has led high-stakes investigations involving C-suite executives, university presidents, and other senior leaders, helping organizations resolve crises decisively while managing legal and reputational risk.
Before joining Ogletree, Lee served as Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer at Nouryon, an international specialty chemicals company—experience that gives him a firsthand understanding of the operational, financial, and personnel pressures his clients face. Prior to Nouryon, he practiced employment law at a large national law firm in Philadelphia and a mid-sized firm in central Pennsylvania.
