Irwin Venick

Irwin Venick practices law in Nashville, focusing on the areas of employment and civil rights, disability, general litigation, health care and non-profit corporations. Irwin’s employment practice includes all areas of discrimination on the basis of race, age, sex, disability, national origin and religion, whistleblower claims and retaliatory discharge. In addition to handling employment law, Irwin also counsels his clients on a wide range of employment related issues including employment contracts, separation agreements and non-competition agreements. He has assisted clients who have applied for short or long term disability in Nashville through their employment, as well as through Social Security. Irwin represents a number of non-profit health care organizations. He is familiar with a wide range of health care related issues including licensing, credentialing, billing, contracting, and clinical investigations. He has also represented a number of professional organizations of health care providers assisting them in legislative matters and professional concerns. Irwin is also a trained mediator.

Irwin was born and raised in New York. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the State University of New York at Buffalo and then attended the School of Law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, receiving his J.D. in 1975. He is currently a member of the Nashville and Tennessee Bar Associations, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the Tennessee Employment Lawyers Association and the Tennessee Association of Professional Mediators.

Irwin was trial and appellate counsel in Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc. a case decided by the United States Supreme Court in November 1993. The Harris case established a new legal standard for the evaluation of sexual harassment claims brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which made it easier to bring such cases.

In addition to his law practice, Irwin is active in community affairs. He participated in Leadership Nashville in 1979. He was an original member of, and later served as chairperson of the Primary Care Advisory Board to the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Public Health. He has served as a Board Member of and Chairperson of the Council on Aging. He currently serves as President of Woodlawn West Historic Neighborhood Association, Inc. as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University School of Nashville, and he is on the Board of Trustees of The Temple, Congregation Ohabai Sholom, where he previously served as President of the Congregation.

Irwin is married to Jeanne Ballinger, M.D. and has two grown children.