Ryan Gembala is a Director of Gembala, McLaughlin & Pecora. Ryan’s practice is dedicated to helping clients successfully navigate their legal issues. He has been protecting his clients’ interests for nearly 20 years. He takes on a wide variety of cases and clients, and focuses his practice on representing the needs of the food industry and public school districts.
Ryan represents clients in federal courts across the country as well as in administrative proceedings before the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Within the food industry, Ryan handles matters arising under the following:
For the restaurant industry and food service entities, he delivers counsel on how to protect their businesses – from establishing policies and procedures, to conducting safe training practices to employees on topics related to food allergens and the responsibility to follow government laws and regulations. He counsels restaurants on the duty to warn regarding ingredients that present a risk of harm to consumers due to the presence of food allergens. With employee awareness and training, the prospects of litigation by restaurant patrons lessens.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ryan helped school districts successfully navigate unprecedented issues relating to staff, students, and the communities they serve. Ryan has represented management in collective bargaining, handled labor grievances and arbitrations, addressed disciplinary matters, worked as an expulsion hearing officer, and generally guided school administrators and school boards. He is a regular speaker on school safety, special education, and legislative/legal updates impacting schools.
In August 2024, Ryan secured a victory for our Board of Education client in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
To celebrate Food Allergy Awareness Week, Ryan was the guest podcast speaker on May 14, 2024 at Eating at a Meeting with host Stacy Stuckrath. Access the YouTube video: Eating at a Meeting podcast
Ryan presented, along with Matt Gembala, McLaughlin & Pecora, at the OHAC/NCRC Spring Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 2, 2024. The topic was the Build America, Buy America Act.
Ryan was selected as a speaker for the Food Allergy Safety Summit for Hospitality on March 20-21, 2024 in College Park, Maryland. His presentation was titled, “Legal Liabilities of Allergen Ignorance: What you don’t know can hurt you.”
Ryan is recognized as an Ohio Super Lawyer, 2023 – 2024, for Business Litigation.
Ryan has significant experience with general commercial matters, labor/employment issues, and conflict resolution. He represents a wide variety of clients, from Fortune 500 companies, to municipalities, to individuals. He believes that communication with clients is critical, and takes the time to fully understand his clients’ issues and objectives. Ryan formulates customized strategic solutions to achieve positive results as efficiently as possible.