Jayme L. Butcher

Biography

CO-CHAIR, COMMERCIAL LITIGATION PRACTICE GROUP

Jayme Butcher has built her practice helping clients in a wide variety of litigation matters, including:

  • Intellectual property issues, including misappropriation of trade secrets and non-competes
  • Employment issues, including discrimination and wrongful termination
  • Complex business issues, including breach of contract, fraud, and other business torts
  • FINRA arbitrations

Jayme has first chair experience in courts across the country and has also led commercial arbitrations at the American Arbitration Association and at FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Recognized by numerous Pittsburgh organizations for her professional excellence, Jayme helps clients reach their goals by developing clearly defined litigation strategies that complement clients’ broader business objectives. Consistent with that, Jayme routinely uses and proposes value billing arrangements tailored to fit each engagement, demonstrating that she is always mindful of the stated objective and achieving it in the most cost-effective manner.

Jayme was inducted into the Fellows Class of 2019 of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation. In 1996, the Foundation established the Fellows program as a formal means of recognizing and honoring attorneys who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in charitable, community, professional, and public service activities.

Outside the Firm

Jayme is the proud mother of a teenage daughter who she regularly includes in her charitable work. She also makes a concerted effort to expose her daughter to all aspects of her career so that she grows up with an understanding and appreciation of what her mom does—which is to help her clients.

Experience

  • Successfully obtained a mandatory injunction enjoining defendants from improperly passing-off inferior and dangerous counterfeit Chinese building materials manufactured below industry standards (containing a known carcinogen).
  • Successfully obtained a summary judgment on behalf of a public utility after a gas explosion occurred in a residential neighborhood, resulting in claims brought by six different plaintiffs for, among other things, wrongful death, permanent disabilities, and property damage.
  • Successfully defended a former financial adviser who was sued for allegedly misappropriating confidential business information after the former employee joined a competing investment firm.
  • Assisted in obtaining injunctions against former employees who were in violation of clients’ non-compete agreements.
  • Defended financial services providers (broker-dealers and investment advisers) in various customer account-related litigation, both in court and before FINRA, involving inter alia, claims of churning, unsuitability, breach of fiduciary duty, and failure to supervise with respect to a wide variety of investment vehicles, including equity and debt investments, mutual funds, commodities, and insurance products. Also provided such clients with account garnishment/writs of execution, financial adviser expungement, and interpleaders.
  • Prevailed in a number of cases for media clients, which have included gaining access to documents, protecting confidential sources, and defending libel claims.
  • Assisted in developing and implementing a successful litigation strategy to protect a software technology agreement that was essential to the client’s business.
  • Lead counsel in a “lift-out” case involving the client’s loss of multiple offices involving claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and trade secret theft.
  • Lead counsel in successfully obtaining a preliminary injunction against a former employee and new employer in a case involving theft of trade secrets and breach of duty of loyalty claims.

News & Views

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Recognitions

  • 2024, Commercial Litigation in Pittsburgh, PA, listed in Best Lawyers in America©
  • 2023–2024, Litigation – Labor and Employment in Pittsburgh, PA, listed in Best Lawyers in America©
  • 2022, President’s Award, by the Pennsylvania Bar Association
  • 2018–2023, “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer” in Business Litigation, listed in Super Lawyers
  • 2011, “Pennsylvania Rising Star,” listed in Super Lawyers

Affiliations

Memberships

  • Allegheny County (PA) Bar Association
  • Federal Bar Association - Western District of Pennsylvania
  • Sarah Heinz House
Professional Activities

In 2017, Jayme was selected by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development as one of five finalists for the Greater Pittsburgh ATHENA awards. This award recognizes regional women for their professional excellence, contributions to the community, and mentorship of other women. Jayme was also selected as an inaugural winner of the Pittsburgh Business Times’ Corporate Citizenship Award in 2017 and was named the 2017 Woman of the Year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia Chapter. In July 2018, she was appointed to the Board of Trustees for the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for a three-year term.

Passionate about women helping women, Jayme dedicates a lot of her time helping women develop their leadership and business acumen. She is a founding member of the Pittsburgh chapter of “Alley to the Valley,” a structured networking group in which accomplished women join together to raise capital, attract strategic partners, expand businesses and help each other reach new heights. Jayme is also an elected member of the executive counsel of the Allegheny County Bar Association’s Women in the Law Division, where she effects positive change on gender equality in the legal profession.

Jayme is also very active in the United Way, serving as the Campaign Co-Chair for the 2022 Campaign and Director of the Board for the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania and is on the Executive Leadership Council for the United Way of Allegheny County and serves on the National Women’s Leadership Council.

In August 2021, Jayme was re-appointed co-chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Large Law Firm Committee for the 2021–2022 term. 

Credentials

Admissions

  • Pennsylvania
  • U.S. District Court - Western District of Pennsylvania

Education

  • Westminster College, BA, cum laude
  • Case Western Reserve University School of Law, JD