Harlan Glasser is a Shareholder and a Co-Chair of Saxton & Stump’s Labor and Employment group. He is also a member of the Business Litigation and Strategic Solutions, Healthcare Litigation, and Investigations, White Collar and Criminal Defense groups. His practice focuses on complex civil litigation, with particular emphasis on employment and commercial disputes. He represents employers, businesses, health systems, physician practice groups, physicians, and other clients operating in highly regulated or specialized industries and works with them to develop litigation strategies that account for both the legal issues and the operational realities driving the dispute.
A consistent feature of Harlan’s practice is his focus on making complicated subjects understandable. His cases have involved difficult employment decisions, business relationships, trade secrets and restrictive covenants, healthcare and clinical issues, regulated conduct, government investigations, and other fact-intensive and commercially sensitive disputes. Harlan draws on experience across these areas to learn the underlying subject matter, identify the issues that matter most, and present complex facts, technical concepts, and specialized regulatory requirements in a clear, coherent way to judges and juries. He has conducted trials in both state and federal courts and manages sophisticated matters through all stages of litigation.
Harlan’s employment practice includes particular experience advising and representing clients whose workforce issues arise within highly regulated or specialized settings. His substantial medical professional liability experience, for example, provides an understanding of clinical practice, healthcare operations and the professional responsibilities of physicians and nurses that directly informs his employment work for healthcare organizations. More broadly, he draws on experience across disciplines to understand not only the legal issues behind a dispute, but also the operational, professional and regulatory considerations that can shape the best approach to resolving it. With that broader understanding of the environments in which his clients operate, Harlan advises employers on matters ranging from day-to-day compliance and risk management to complex disputes and litigation under federal and state employment laws. His work includes workplace policies and employment agreements, terminations, disciplinary actions, internal investigations, and other sensitive personnel matters. Harlan represents employers before government agencies and in state and federal litigation involving Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, whistleblower claims, and wage-and-hour disputes. He also litigates trade secret, noncompete, and confidentiality matters on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants and has defended class and collective actions.
Harlan’s commercial litigation practice likewise includes complex business and civil disputes in which legal issues intersect with operational, financial, regulatory, or technical considerations. He works closely with clients to understand the broader business objectives behind a dispute, develop a practical litigation strategy, and distill a complicated record into the core factual and legal issues that will drive resolution, dispositive motion practice, or trial. That approach is particularly useful in regulated industries, where contractual and business disputes may be shaped by professional standards, licensing requirements, government oversight, or other industry-specific obligations.
Healthcare is one important example of that broader practice. Harlan has extensive experience representing physicians, hospitals, health systems, and physician practice groups in matters involving clinical, regulatory, employment, and business issues. His work has required familiarity with the practice of medicine and with the state, federal, and professional requirements that shape healthcare operations and physician relationships. He has defended medical professional liability matters involving a wide range of specialties and has counseled healthcare clients on issues involving HIPAA, peer review, medical records, and federal anti-kickback and self-referral laws. That experience gives him practical insight into how specialized professional obligations and regulatory requirements can affect employment and commercial disputes – an approach that translates to clients in other heavily regulated industries as well.
Harlan also brings significant government investigations and enforcement experience to his practice. Before rejoining Saxton & Stump in 2023, he spent three years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where he defended complex claims against the United States, its agencies, and employees, and led government investigations and enforcement proceedings involving individuals and corporations under the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act. That experience informs his representation of businesses and individuals facing internal investigations, government scrutiny, and disputes in which regulatory, civil, and enforcement considerations overlap. He previously practiced with Saxton & Stump from 2015 to 2020.
Harlan also has experience managing high-volume international and multi-state discovery. While serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he was selected as his office’s e-Litigation subject matter expert, and applied his electronic discovery experience to develop technology-based practices designed to improve litigation efficiency.
Harlan began his legal career working closely with judges in federal and state trial courts. Before joining Saxton & Stump in 2015, he served as a senior judicial law clerk for the Hon. Sylvia H. Rambo of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, assisting with opinions, orders, and adjudications involving complex civil and criminal proceedings, procedural issues, and evidentiary matters. He also served as a law clerk for the Hon. Thomas A. Placey (ret.) and the Hon. J. Wesley Oler Jr. (ret.) of the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas.
While in law school, Harlan served as managing editor of the Penn State International Law Review and was a member of the Moot Court Board and a legal aid clinic. He was inducted into the Woolsack Academic Honor Society and received a focus study certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Advocacy.
