Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Labor and Employment Department; Employment Litigation and Counseling Practice Group.

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (2000-present); formerly with Bayko Gibson Carnegie Hagan Schoonmaker & Meyer in Houston, Texas.

Linda Schoonmaker is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw's Houston office. She has defended employers for over thirty three years in discrimination and wage and hour lawsuits, arbitrations and administrative charges brought by employees and governmental agencies throughout the country. Linda has tried numerous lawsuits and arbitrations to jury verdict/final judgment during her long career, including six in 2021. Linda was described in the 2013 edition of Legal 500 as “one of the best and brightest lawyers anywhere,” and by a contributor to the 2009 edition as " one of the most competent and capable trial lawyers I've ever encountered". She has been Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Labor and Employment Law since 1994. In addition to employment litigation defense involving all forms of discrimination, wage and hour, and whistleblower claims, Linda provides counseling and training to employers regarding employment policies, pay equity and whistleblower issues and state and federal laws impacting the employment relationship, manages OSHA, Department of Labor and EEOC investigations, and prosecutes and defends non-competition/trade secrets litigation. Linda has practiced law at Seyfarth Shaw in the Houston office for the past twenty two years, and is a partner in the firm’s Labor & Employment Department. She has served on the firm’s Women’s National Leadership Team from its inception many years ago until December 2015, and has served for a number of years on the firm’s Lawyer Development Committee. In March 2013, the Texas Women Lawyers honored Linda with its Pathfinder Award in recognition of her contributions to the legal profession.

English.

Member, State Bar of Texas (member Labor and Employment and Women in the Law Sections); Member, Houston Bar Association (member Labor and Employment and Health Law Sections); Board of Directors member and past Board President of the Fort Bend Regional Council on Substance Abuse and former Board President of the Fort Bend County Women’s Center (domestic violence); 2013 recipient of the Pathfinder Award from Texas Women’s Lawyers; 2009 Houston Texans/Halliburton Foundation Hometown Hero Award for service to the community; 2012 recipient of the Helen Cordes Award for service to the community in the area of substance abuse prevention and treatment; Board member of Achieve Fort Bend County (high school dropout prevention and support of summer reading programs for at risk first grade students); Member and former Board member of the Exchange Club of Sugar Land (service club); Advisory Board member of Texana Center (services tor differently-abled children and adults); speaker for the Texas Medical Liability Trust on workplace discrimination and workplace violence issues.

programs for at risk first grade students); Member and former Board member of the Exchange Club of Sugar Land (service club); Advisory Board member of Texana Center (services tor differently-abled children and adults); Friends Council and Grant Committee member of Fort Bend Cares (serving disadvantaged children and youth of Fort Bend County).

JD, University of Houston Law Center (1988), Order of the Coif, Houston Law Review Publications Editor Board 25; BA, Syracuse University (1973); attended Vassar College.