James Harry Oliverio

James Harry (JH) Oliverio is a seasoned litigator and business counselor who regularly advises his clients on regulatory, insurance, corporate governance, contract and employment issues.  He has experience preparing and negotiating employment agreements, vendor and customer contracts, corporate governance documents, and leases and land contracts on behalf of commercial tenants and landlords.

A skilled negotiator, JH understands each of his client’s business needs and strives to find practical solutions to achieve their goals, valuing alternative dispute resolution and settlement when litigation is avoidable or impractical.  When litigation arises, however, JH is routinely called upon to represent corporations, including several Fortune 500 companies, and individuals in high-stakes matters.  An aggressive advocate in the courtroom, JH litigates a wide variety of civil cases in state and federal courts in New York and New Jersey. His practice ranges from complex commercial matters to employment, products liability, class actions, estate and probate, trade secret, and corporate dissolution/oppressed minority shareholder litigation.  Throughout his career, JH has also defended clients in a wide array of casualty claims, including premises liability, inadequate security, and defending against manufacturing, design defect, negligence and breach of warranty claims.

JH also has extensive experience counseling clients on First Amendment matters regarding free speech, media law and religious freedom, and has represented newspapers, online entities, television networks, and other media outlets as well as individuals against defamation claims.

Education

• Clerkship, Hon. Charles E. Powers, Jr., J.S.C., Bergen County Superior Court, Civil Division, 2014-2015
• Roger Williams University School of Law, J.D., 2013, summa cum laude
  • Managing editor, Roger Williams University Law Review, 2012-2013
• Providence College, B.A., Philosophy, 2010

Bar Admissions

• New York, 2014
• New Jersey, 2013
• Rhode Island, 2013

Court Admissions

• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, 2016
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 2018
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, 2018

Representative Cases

• Achieved summary judgment in New Jersey state court on behalf of an individual in a defamation action brought against her by her landlord based on allegedly defamatory comments made in a Yelp review.
• Served on the trial team on behalf of plaintiff in a $1B+ quantum meruit claim that settled after more than three weeks of trial in New Jersey state court.
• Achieved summary judgment in New York state court on behalf of a television network in a defamation action based upon the network’s allegedly defamatory news story.
• Prevailed in representation of funeral home and its employees in regulatory investigation conducted by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office in connection with a consumer complaint.

Honors and Awards

• Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America™, Commercial Litigation, 2022-2023
• Thomson Reuters, Rising Stars®, New Jersey, 2021-2022

Professional Memberships

• NJ State Bar Association, Member, Media Law Committee
• New York State Bar Association

Publications

• Author, “The Great Instrument of Chicanery: An Appeal for Greater Judicial Scrutiny of Solvent Insurers’ Schemes of Arrangement,” 17 Roger Williams U. L. Rev. 439 (2012)
• Co-author, “Talking ‘Timely’ Removal in Multidefendant Litigation,” Law 360, June 20, 2011