Jonathan Tepe is a Partner in the Nashville office of Sanford Heisler Sharp, where his practice focuses on employment discrimination, public interest litigation, and complex civil litigation, representing both individuals and classes.
Jonathan represents dozens of counties and cities across the nation in their claims against manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers for their roles in causing the opioid crisis. Jonathan has also represented health care executives who were terminated after reporting legal and regulatory violations; a co-founder of a global semi-conductor company who was defrauded out of his rightful ownership share in the company; a Cuban citizen in his appeals of the denial of asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture protection; and employees in multiple cases alleging discrimination based on race, age, gender, disability, or sexual orientation, including against a Fortune 100 company. Jonathan also helped represent a class of over 700 auto workers in their age discrimination claims against Volkswagen.
Jonathan received his law degree from Columbia Law School and his Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Political Science and History, with Honors in Arts and Sciences, from The Ohio State University. While at Columbia Law, Jonathan was a member of the Human Rights Law Review, Public Relations Chairman of Rightslink (a student-run human rights law organization), and a participant in the Human Rights Internship Program. As an intern with the Legal Resources Centre in Makhanda, South Africa, Jonathan contributed to litigation that ultimately secured a judgment finding that severe furniture shortages in Eastern Cape schools violated the constitutional right to a basic education, which resulted in the government being ordered to provide sufficient desks and chairs to all Eastern Cape schools. He also helped to defend low-income families as an extern with The Bronx Defenders and to expand voting rights as an extern with The Center for Popular Democracy. While at Ohio State, Jonathan worked as an intern for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Employment Law Section and for U.S. Congressman Steve Driehaus.
Jonathan is a member of the Tennessee and Ohio bars. He is also member of the Tennessee Bar Association.
Jonathan completed a clerkship for the Honorable Sarah A. L. Merriam, then-U.S. Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Prior to his clerkship, Jonathan was an Associate at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he gained substantial experience in complex commercial litigation, as well as various pro bono matters representing low-income individuals.
Updated July 2023
