Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Client Satisfaction

Partner

With nearly 20 years of experience as a labor and employment litigator with Seyfarth Shaw, Ada is a trusted advisor to clients in the airline, retail, healthcare and manufacturing industries. Her practice focuses on advice and counsel and innovative litigation involving: - complex procedural defenses including: preemption of state law claims under ERISA, Railway Labor Act, Airline Deregulation Act, Federal Aviation Act, and the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance Act (SGLIA); Article III and statutory standing; statute of limitations; and administrative exhaustion requirements, among others - Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) claims, prevailing as lead counsel in the first BIPA case to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit - whistleblower claims under state law, AIR21, Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley - discrimination claims in state and federal jurisdictions across the country, including under Title VII, ADA, Section 1981, and the ADEA, and their state law counterparts, including systemic actions brought by the EEOC - ERISA single, multi-plaintiff and class action matters involving denial of health, disability, life, pension and 401(k) benefits, including defense of high profile “stock drop,” retiree medical and 401(k fee class actions Her class action experience includes unique procedural issues including sustaining removal of cases to federal court on preemption and Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) grounds, successfully opposing a named plaintiff-intervenor, successfully petitioning for Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f) review of class certification, obtaining appellate CAFA review and reversal of a district court remand order, defeating and narrowing class certification, and negotiating and overseeing settlements in classes of up to 160,000 class members. In 2019, her unique legal strategy in a a commercial airline matter was recognized for innovation by The Financial Times. Ada co-chairs the firm's Air and Rail specialty team, and am a member of its ERISA and Employee Benefits Litigation practice group, Whistleblower team and Health Care and Provider Fraud team.

Adam Lasky

Partner, National Co-Chair, Government Contracts

Adam Greetis

Partner

Alexander Passantino

Mr. Passantino is Vice Chair of the firm’s Government Relations Practice Group and a Co-Chair of the firm’s Wage and Hour Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Passantino, the former Acting Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, focuses his practice on all aspects of wage and hour law, including advising employers on federal and state wage and hour compliance issues, auditing payroll and employee classification practices, representing employers before the U.S. Department of Labor, and defending class and collective action litigation.In his national practice, Mr. Passantino provides day-to-day advice and assistance to employers in their efforts to comply with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the state laws that require employers to pay overtime and minimum wages to their employees. In addition, Mr. Passantino provides guidance and counseling to government contractors who are subject to the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act. He advises clients on implementing compliance programs, auditing and correcting wage and hour issues, and responding to the ever-changing wage and hour legal landscape. Mr. Passantino has also defended numerous wage and hour lawsuits, including both individual claims and class and collective actions.Mr. Passantino is active in the hospitality, construction, retail, financial services, and energy industries, and regularly assists trade associations and individual employers in those industries with public policy, legislative, regulatory, and administrative issues. He has testified before a number of congressional committees, including the House Committee on Education and Workforce and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He is a frequent speaker on wage and hour issues, at conferences, webinars, and client-specific training sessions.Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Passantino served as the Deputy and Acting Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD) from 2006 until 2009. In this role, he led the WHD in its interpretation and enforcement of the FLSA, the FMLA, the Davis-Bacon Act, the Service Contract Act, and numerous other federal statutes. Nominated by the President, Mr. Passantino was responsible for enforcement policy, field operations, strategic planning, budgeting, media relations, legislation, regulations, opinion letters, compliance assistance, and personnel matters. Mr. Passantino joined the Department of Labor in 2005 as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Honorable Victoria A. Lipnic, former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards. In that capacity, Mr. Passantino was a member of the WHD’s Executive Team and provided legal and policy advice on a range of wage and hour matters, with emphasis on the FLSA and the FMLA.Before his work at the Department of Labor, Mr. Passantino served as a law clerk to the Honorable John F. Nangle in the Southern District of Georgia, after which he practiced law for eight years in Atlanta and Nashville, focusing on FLSA, employment discrimination, First Amendment, and consumer and financial services litigation.

Alison Ashford

Partner

Amanda Genovese

Partner

Amanda Sonneborn

Amanda Sonneborn is a partner in the Labor and Employment Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP and is Co-Chair of the Chicago L&E Department and former chair of the ERISA & Employee Benefits Litigation Practice Group. She actively advises clients in the healthcare, construction, print media, hotel, gaming, manufacturing, transportation, and retail industries. She has considerable experience in the area of Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) litigation. Her ERISA and employee benefits litigation experience includes defense of claims for benefits, breach of fiduciary duty claims, cash balance plan claims, breach of contract claims, and ERISA Section 510 employment discrimination claims. Amanda devotes a considerable amount of her practice to the litigation of class-action and multi-plaintiff claims. She is also particularly well-versed in the field of labor and employee relations law. Within this arena, she has represented clients in unfair labor practice proceedings, contractual arbitrations, representation proceedings, and Section 301 litigation. She also has experience advising clients during union organizing campaigns. In addition, she provides clients with day-to-day labor relations advice on a wide spectrum of topics, including independent contractor issues, neutrality agreements, and corporate campaigns. Amanda has substantial experience with non-union employment issues as well. She has represented clients in litigation under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the WARN Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois Minimum Wage Act, the Minnesota Human Rights Act, and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. She also counsels various clients on day-to-day employment law matters and assists clients with revisions to employee handbooks, employee-related policies, and employment applications. She leads various training courses with Seyfarth Shaw at Work®, including anti-harassment training and positive employee relations training.

Amy Conant-Hoang

Partner and Co-Chair of Government Contracts Practice Group, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Andrew Pearlstein

Partner

Andrew Paley

Andrew Lucano

Partner, Vice Chair of Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group, and Office Chair of New York Corporate

Andrew Scroggins

Andy Scroggins is a member of the firm’s Complex Discrimination Litigation and Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Groups. He regularly represents companies across the country facing class actions, collective actions, pattern or practice lawsuits, and systemic investigations, involving hundreds to thousands of putative class members. He also has extensive experience on matters before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, ranging from the early charge stage to systemic litigation. He has been lead counsel for Epic Systems in the district and appellate courts, and co-counsel at the United States Supreme Court, in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, which established that employers lawfully may require employees to enter into an arbitration agreement containing a waiver of the ability to participate in a class or collective action against an employer. He also served as counsel for M&G Polymers at the district and appellate courts, and before the United States Supreme Court, in Tackett v. M&G Polymers, a significant ruling for employers which overturned the Sixth Circuit’s decades-old “Yard-Man presumption” in cases involving the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements and the duration of retiree health benefits.

Angelo Paparelli

Partner

Ariel Cudkowicz

Ariel Cudkowicz is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw's Boston office, serving as the Co-Chair of the firm's national Employment Litigation & Counseling Practice Group and as Co-Managing Partner of the Boston office. His practice focuses on employment litigation with a particular emphasis on wage and hour collective and class actions, complex single-plaintiff employment discrimination litigation and workplace advice and counseling. He specializes in representing companies in the retail industry in FLSA collective actions, and in the hospitality industry in class actions challenging the distribution of tips and service charges under state and federal laws. He also provides advice to Fortune 100 and 500 corporations on compliance with state and federal wage and hour laws and avoidance of litigation under those laws. Ariel has extensive experience defending single and multi-plaintiff employment discrimination cases brought under federal and state laws and employment-related breach of contract and tort claims. He also has extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution proceedings, including arbitration, mediation, conciliation and summary and mini-trials encompassing most substantive areas of employment law.

Arren Goldman

Partner

Arthur Telegen

Arthur Telegen is a partner at Seyfarth Shaw in the firm's Labor Management Relations Practice Group. He specializes in union-management relations, representing clients in federal court and before the National Labor Relations Board, at arbitration, and in collective bargaining.

Ashley Sherwood

Partner

Barry Miller

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Bart Lazar

Partner

Benjamin Conley

Partner

Bennett Greenberg

Mr. Greenberg is a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He is a member of the firm’s national construction practice and concentrates his practice in design and construction law. His work includes negotiating and drafting contracts setting forth the rights and responsibilities of the various parties to complex construction projects. He also counsels clients on procurement-related issues, contract administration, risk management, and dispute avoidance, and has extensive experience preparing claim documentation in support of equitable adjustments to contracts. Mr. Greenberg has successfully mediated, litigated, and arbitrated large complex, multi-party construction disputes. Mr. Greenberg represents public and private sector owners, contractors, and design professionals in the design-build process. He has advised and educated clients on alternative project delivery systems, prepared and responded to request for proposals, drafted and negotiated design-build contracts structuring the relationships between the design-build participants, and has counseled clients on administering design-build contracts.

Bradford Livingston

Brad Livingston is a partner in the Chicago office and long-serving former Chair of the firm’s national Labor and Employee Relations Practice Group. He represents employers in all aspects of employment law and litigation, with a particular emphasis on labor relations matters, including labor-related advice and counseling, work before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), collective bargaining negotiations, and grievance administration and arbitration.

Brandon Bigelow

Brandon L. Bigelow is a partner in the Litigation Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Chair of the National Antitrust & Competition Practice Group. He represents clients in complex commercial matters, including franchise disputes, software piracy claims, and antitrust and consumer class action litigation. Mr. Bigelow has appeared before state and federal courts on behalf of clients in a variety of industries, including software designers, motor vehicle and medical device manufacturers, hedge funds, broker-dealers, and pharmaceutical companies. He also counsels clients on compliance issues involving state and federal competition laws, including regulatory review of merger and acquisition transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Chambers USA has recognized Mr. Bigelow as a leading lawyer in antitrust in Massachusetts. He is also listed in Super Lawyers for his skill in business litigation. Mr. Bigelow teaches as an adjunct professor of law at Boston College Law School. He is a vice chair of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law and a past co-chair of the Class Action Committee of the Boston Bar Association. He has published articles about antitrust, consumer class actions and securities issues in the Boston Bar Journal, Massachusetts Law Review, and various other publications. Prior to his law career, Mr. Bigelow served as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy from 1994 to 1998, and he now maintains an active maritime practice.

Brent Clark

Mr. Clark is a partner in the Firm’s Labor and Employment Department and Chair of the Workplace Safety and Environmental practice group. He focuses his practice on litigation defense, trial and appellate practice, and handles OSHA, MSHA, environmental, workplace whistleblower, tort and toxic tort, and employment litigation matters. As an OSHA and MSHA litigator, he has defended against willful, serious, repeat, unwarrantable failure, Section 110(c) and egregious citations, including hearings and appeals to the OSHA Review Commission, the Mine Safety Health Review Commission and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. He has tried numerous cases before Federal and State OSHA courts. He has provided analysis, investigation, and advice regarding potential criminal and whistleblower allegations and claims including discrimination, termination, retaliation, and whistleblower claims under OSHA, MSHA, DOT, Air 21, and the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA). Mr. Clark has experience in investigating, reporting, and defending against claims arising from workplace fatalities, explosions, fires and catastrophes in general industry and construction. He also provides general compliance counseling and advice concerning OSHA and MSHA inspections and investigations, internal audits and compliance issues. Mr. Clark advises clients and trade associations regarding comments on new and proposed OSHA standards and has testified before OSHA regarding standards such as OSHA’s ergonomics standard. His experience in the area of environmental law includes litigating a variety of claims under federal and state environmental statutes and regulations before federal and state courts and agencies. He has defended and prosecuted claims under CERCLA (Superfund), RCRA, TSCA, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, EPCRA, Underground Storage Tanks (UST’s), DOT, FAA and related state statutes and regulations. Mr. Clark also provides general environmental compliance counseling and assists clients with internal audits, compliance programs, agency inspections, and transactions involving environmental issues. He represents clients regarding chemical and environmental product regulations and hazardous materials including mercury, lead, and VOC’s. He handles the investigation, litigation and trial defense against environmental, whistleblower, discrimination and retaliation claims. Mr. Clark’s experience in tort and toxic tort litigation includes actions covering negligence, chemical exposures, chemical releases, groundwater contamination, underground storage tanks, property damage, premises liability, product liability, respondeat superior, and intentional torts including cases involving benzene, asbestos, silica, lead, PCB’s, mold, solvents and hazardous wastes and hazardous substances. Mr. Clark lectures frequently to trade and industry groups on OSHA and MSHA compliance and defense, whistleblower investigations and defense, environmental compliance and litigation matters, and various issues relating to hazardous and toxic chemicals.

Brett Bartlett

Innovative partner and business advisor helping employers to solve problems practically, especially related to the defense of complex and class action employee pay-related litigation and the execution of best practice workforce solutions and strategies.

Brian Stolzenbach

Partner

Brian Ashe

Brian Ashe is a partner representing employers in all aspects of labor and employment law. His main areas of practice are employment litigation, employment class actions and counseling. Brian defends employers in complex wage and hour class actions, discrimination litigation, multi-party trade secret cases and multi-party contract litigation. He counsels clients in various aspects of human resources management, including employee privacy, employee discipline, wrongful discharge and equal employment opportunity. His counseling practice focuses on prevention and artful business strategy.

Bryan O'Keefe

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP

Camille Olson

Camille Olson is a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Chair of its National Complex Discrimination Litigation Practice Group.

Catherine Burns

Partner

Chelsea Mesa

Chelsea Mesa is a partner in the Labor & Employment Department in the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Her practice focuses on advising employers concerning various employment-related issues, including compliance with California and federal anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and leave laws, and other human resources practices, as well as negotiating and documenting employment and severance agreements. Chelsea also counsels clients on their employment policies, and performs trainings on all aspects of employment conduct, including California-mandated sexual harassment training, discrimination training, and training on the interplay of the Americans with Disabilities Act with state and federal leave laws. In addition, Chelsea advises employers on hiring and termination decisions, including those where federal and state WARN requirements are triggered, and handling performance deficiencies and evaluations. Chelsea has extensive experience litigating employment matters on behalf of clients in the retail, manufacturing, entertainment, distribution, food-service, health care and technology industries, including single-plaintiff discrimination, wage and hour, harassment, and wrongful termination matters, as well as class actions. Chelsea also has experience in handling traditional labor matters, including arbitrations regarding issues arising under collective bargaining agreements and advising clients on union-related issues.

Christian Canas

Senior Counsel

Christina Janice

Christina Janice is a senior counsel of Seyfarth Shaw. Her practice focuses on defending employers throughout the country in complex, high profile employment discrimination class actions and single plaintiff litigation, EEOC pattern or practice lawsuits, wage & hour class and collective actions, Department of Labor compliance partnerships, EEOC systemic and individual investigations and subpoena enforcement proceedings, and executive and other high profile individual employment disputes. A former in-house vice president, associate general counsel and head of litigation for a multinational S&P 500 Index company, Christina provides employers with a unique combination of strategic legal counsel with a business partner perspective: counseling clients to achieve informed and innovative solutions to a wide variety of compliance topics, domestic and international labor disputes and human resources matters, internal audits, complex internal investigations, executive compensation and severance programs, and workforce integration and retrenchment incident to mergers and acquisitions. She has extensive experience in arbitration, mediation and other forms of early alternative dispute resolution, and in counseling employers on the effective use of these methodologies. Christina is a contributing author to the firm's annual EEOC-Initiated Litigation Report and Workplace Class Action Blog.

Christopher Robertson

Mr. Robertson is Co-Chair of the National Whistleblower Team and a member of the Complex Litigation, Capital Markets and Investment Management practice areas in the Boston Office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. His areas of focus include complex commercial and financial litigation, securities litigation, consumer fraud litigation, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, and internal investigations. He has defended and advised corporations, broker-dealers, investment companies, investment advisers, advertisers and media companies, Internet companies, and their officers and directors in connection with class actions, derivative and private litigation, as well as audits, investigations, arbitrations and litigation commenced by federal and state authorities, self-regulatory organizations, and shareholders. He has handled matters and tried cases in the federal and state trial and appellate courts, as well as before the U.S. Congress, U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, state securities and consumer protection agencies, and self-regulatory bodies, including the NYSE, AMEX and NASD. Prior to joining Seyfarth Shaw, Mr. Robertson was Senior Counsel with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C., where he investigated and litigated, among others, accounting, insider trading, investment management, corporate misconduct, investment adviser and broker-dealer matters.

Christopher Robertson

Christopher DeGroff

Chris DeGroff is the national Co-Chair of the firm's Complex Discrimination Litigation Practice Group, the Labor and Employment Department Chair for Chicago, and a Member of the Labor and Employment Department's Steering Committee. He represents employers throughout the country and in a wide range of employment law matters largely focused on multi-plaintiff and class/collective actions. His class action experience spans the entire scope of employment law theories, including claims of race, age and gender discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and wage and hour matters. He also has extensive experience litigating against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), at the early charge stage, in administrative subpoena enforcement actions, and in large-scale EEOC pattern-or-practice litigation.

Cliff Fonstein

Cliff Fonstein is a partner in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of Seyfarth Shaw’s national Whistleblower Team, as well as its Financial Services Employment Practice Team. He has litigated all types of employment cases for Fortune 500 companies, from single-plaintiff whistleblower and discrimination claims to large class actions. In the past few years, he has provided advice to financial services, manufacturing and media companies, pertaining to training, terminations, compensation and other employment-related issues and has represented these clients in state and federal court and before FINRA arbitration panels.

Coby Turner

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP

Condon McGlothlen

Condon McGlothlen is a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago. For the past 20 years, he has helped clients reduce legal risk by improving employment policies and practices. He is a trusted advisor to large public and private companies looking to develop, implement, and apply best-in-class approaches to hiring, promotions, and group separations ─ both voluntary and involuntary. He has defended employers in private class and collective actions, and against pattern or practice cases brought by the EEOC. He is a nationally recognized authority on group separation programs and agreements plus all related facets of compliance, as well as on pre-employment and employment testing.

Cory Hirsch

Co-Office Managing Partner of the Firm’s Chicago office

Cynthia Mitchell

Partner, Co-Chair of Health Care Real Estate & Finance Practice Group, and Co-Leader of Health Care, Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals Practice Group

Dana Treister

Partner

Daniel Klein

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Daniel Evans

Partners

Daniel Joshua Salinas

Joshua represents clients in complex commercial disputes involving trade secrets and restrictive covenants, unfair competition, contract, and intellectual property claims in both state and federal court. His experience includes the prosecution and defense of trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and patent infringement claims. Joshua has extensive experience in trial preparation, discovery, and law and motion. He also advises clients on noncompetition, nonsolicitation, and nondisclosure agreements, protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights, and litigation avoidance strategies. Joshua is also an author of the firm’s trade secret blog, www.tradesecretslaw.com.

David Blake

David Blake is a partner in Seyfarth’s Construction practice in the Washington, DC office. Based on his more than 25 years of experience, David creates and implements strategies that drive successful client outcomes during all phases of a construction project, including contract drafting, project administration and dispute resolution. Clients look to David to draft and negotiate effective construction, construction management, design-build, EPC, design, and equipment purchase agreements. During the course of a project, David assists his clients in resolving construction and design issues in a practical and creative manner. When controversies persist, David prosecutes and defends requests for equitable adjustment and claims for issues such as delay, labor inefficiency, and extra work. David has successfully settled numerous disputes through mediation. He is also an experienced litigator, representing his clients before state and federal courts, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, and the American Arbitration Association. David has represented his clients on a wide array of private and public construction projects - including foreign embassies, professional sports stadiums, commercial office and mixed-use buildings, high rise residential, courthouses, hospitals, schools, airports, marine ports, highways, refineries, hydro, solar and biomass power generation, industrial facilities, and waste water treatment plants. David holds an undergraduate degree in architecture, and he has been an LEED-accredited professional since 2006. As such, he offers his clients a rare background that is particularly valuable given the technically oriented nature of construction law.

David Baffa

Mr. Baffa is Chair of the Workplace Compliance Solutions Group at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, which focuses on change management and the delivery of proactive solutions that help clients avoid mass litigation and develop internal compliance initiatives. Each year since 2009, he has been listed by Legal 500 as one of six "Leading Lawyers" in the United States in the area of Workplace and Employment Law Counseling. He was first inducted into the Legal 500 “Hall of Fame” in 2017, and remains one of only 500 lawyers in the Hall of Fame in all disciplines across the country, in recognition of his consistent praise received by clients. Mr. Baffa also co-chairs the Employment Litigation Group, drawing upon his litigation experience to drive efficiency in the management of routine employment litigation, promote teamwork and the sharing of best practices, and stay abreast of employment law substantive and procedural developments. He is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt, and uses the SeyfarthLean approach to deliver increased value to clients. Mr. Baffa has assisted numerous clients with global pay equity analyses and DEI strategies, business restructuring and workforce reductions, and corporate culture assessments and crisis management. He has led the centralization and process-mapping of leave of absence and disability accommodation management, developed comprehensive arbitration and dispute resolution programs, conducted exempt-status and pay practice assessments, and developed tools and systems for assessing employee engagement, reviewing hiring processes, monitoring state and local developments, and analyzing independent contractor and other alternative worker arrangements. Mr. Baffa has overseen the development, implementation, testing and validation of complex artificial intelligence tools and employee selection systems. He has also conducted extensive employee and management training through Seyfarth Shaw At Work, including leave management training, anti-harassment training and positive employment relations training. More recently, Mr. Baffa has helped global organizations respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to manage complex remote work and pandemic recovery projects as organizations brace for new ways of working. Mr. Baffa has broad-based employment litigation and traditional labor experience. He handles federal and state employment litigation, including cases involving allegations of sex, race, and national origin discrimination, age discrimination and Older Worker Benefit Protection Act violations, pay discrimination claims, sex harassment issues, failure to accommodate and disability discrimination claims, breach-of-contract and employment-at-will lawsuits and wrongful discharge disputes. He also has experience managing administrative agency investigations, including systemic initiative, pattern-and-practice and disparate impact claims involving unequal pay, hiring and pre-employment testing, background checking, promotion, and reasonable accommodation processes. Mr. Baffa also has experience litigating labor arbitration cases, conducting election campaigns, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and handling proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board.

Dawn Lurie

Senior Counsel

Dawn Mertineit

For more than a decade, Dawn Mertineit has represented corporations and their directors and officers in a number of industries in complex commercial litigation, litigating partnership, franchise, real estate, and whistleblower disputes, with a special emphasis on noncompete and trade secrets litigation. She understands that many clients rely on noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements to protect their most valuable assets, while others face hurdles in recruiting and onboarding new employees bound by such restrictive covenants. Dawn brings her experience and knowledge of state and federal laws to help her clients navigate these issues, from drafting agreements and executing rollout and enforcement strategies, to analyzing competitor agreements and proposing recruitment and onboarding plans and prosecuting or defending against claims related to breach of restrictive covenants or misappropriation of trade secrets.

Debbie Caplan

Debbie Caplan is Senior Counsel in the Labor & Employment Department in the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. A former employment litigator in both state and federal courts, Ms. Caplan now focuses her practice exclusively on providing advice and counseling to employers on day-to-day human resources and employee relations issues, such as leave law management, wage/hour compliance, disciplinary and performance counseling, reasonable accommodation/interactive process, hiring and termination issues, harassment/discrimination complaints, internal investigations, drafting compliance policy documentation, and exempt/non-exempt classifications. In addition to day-to-day counseling, Ms. Caplan assists employers in the preparation of various employment-related documents, such as handbooks and policy manuals, job applications, offer letters and employment agreements, arbitration agreements, leave documentation, new hire and termination paperwork, severance and release agreements, compensation and bonus plans, and travel and expense reimbursement plans.

Diane Dygert

Partner and Chair of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Department

Douglas Mancino

Partner

Dyann DelVecchio Hilbern

Dyann DelVecchio Hilbern is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's Boston office. She provides high-level advising and U.S. immigration portfolio management for corporations, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations. Clients describe her as “passionate about her work and compassionate towards the foreign workers’ situations.” A frequent panelist and trainer, and an enthusiastic mentor to law students and junior practitioners, Dyann has co-authored a number of articles on immigration law and is often interviewed by the press on issues relating to immigration.

Edward "Teddie" Arnold

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Elisabeth Watson

Liz Watson is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's downtown Los Angeles office. She is also a member of the firm's Wage and Hour Litigation Practice Group. Liz specializes in wage and hour class actions, single plaintiff cases, workplace investigations, OSHA, False Claims Act Retaliation, independent contractor, employment counseling, and other areas of labor and employment.

Ellen McLaughlin

Ellen McLaughlin is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's Chicago office. She is a trusted advisor on workplace issues, with a practice focused on creating compliant HR practices and systems to achieve business purposes and avoid litigation, advising on complex leave and accommodation issues and investigating C-suite and other sensitive matters.

Eric Janson

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Erica Bakies

Senior Counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Frederick Smith

Labor & Employment Department; Single-Plaintiff Litigation Practice Group; Complex Discrimination Litigation Practice Group

Gabriel Mozes

Mr. Mozes is a Partner in the Atlanta office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. He represents business immigration clients across numerous industries including management consulting, financial services, pharmaceutical, and information technology. Mr. Mozes specializes in the following areas: H-1B third-party placement and right to control issues; L-1B specialized knowledge; high-volume TN cross-border work; and PERM program counseling. He works closely with clients to build innovative, customized, and scalable process management solutions to deliver increased value at lower costs. Mr. Mozes received his J.D. from Suffolk Law School where he graduated magna cum laude. He is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has taught various business immigration seminars as part of the faculty of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. Prior to law school, Mr. Mozes worked as a legal assistant and case manager for a prominent business immigration law firm in Boston. Mr. Mozes holds a B.A. in Economics from Tufts University and, upon graduation, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to perform economic development research in Romania.

Gary Friedman

Partner

Gary Friedman

For nearly 20 years, Gary has been recognized consistently as one of the top employment lawyers in the country. He has been ranked every year since 2005 in Chambers USA, in which he has been described as a “fantastic lawyer” and “leading light” in the field who is “innovative, creative, persuasive, and smart,” “excellent at formulating strategies that are focused on the legal as well as the business side of the case,” and who “has seen it all–so nothing surprises him.” Clients further herald him as “a very good lawyer who is very good at breaking down options and alternatives,” who “provides reasoned, pragmatic, and effective advice regardless of the situation," whose “strategic thinking is hugely impressive,” and whose “analysis, research, and judgment at every decision point have been outstanding.” Clients also note that Gary is “outstanding,” and “able to cut through complex issues and provide pragmatic and sensible advice ... to navigate the intersection of legal, commercial, and reputational issues.” They also note he is a “class action defense heavyweight,” “always available, very reassuring, and very good in his analysis.”

Glenn Smith

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

Howard Pianko

Partner

Howard Wexler

Labor & Employment Department; Single-Plaintiff Litigation Practice Group

Ian Morrison

Ian Morrison has extensive experience representing employers, employee benefit plans, and fiduciaries in a broad range of ERISA and employee benefits litigation. He has successfully handled numerous high-stakes ERISA class actions for Fortune 500 companies, complex individual claims, and well as complex nationwide portfolios of litigation. Many of his ERISA cases have resulted in leading and often-cited court decisions. Ian has handled a wide range of ERISA matter through trial and appeal including individual pension and welfare benefit claims, severance pay claims, executive compensation disputes, class action claims regarding plan design, and class action claims regarding plan administration and fiduciary responsibility.

Jake Downing

Co-Chair, Defined Contribution Plans Practice Group

James King

Jim King co-chairs Seyfarth Shaw's global Business Immigration Group, helping clients to create efficiencies in their business immigration management programs while optimizing the stakeholder-user experience. Jim leads the group's immigration process and systems strategy, working with Seyfarth Labs to bring innovation and automation to the every-day tasks involved in managing large immigration portfolios. Within the last 18 months the group developed and launched the Caribou immigration case management and client portal platform, harnessing the full potential of the Salesforce-based system and moving forward with resources to help our clients navigate the changing and challenging immigration landscape.

Jason Silver

Associate, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Jay Wardlaw

Partner

Jay Carle

Partner and Deputy Chair, eDiscovery & Information Governance Practice Group

Jeffrey Wortman

Jeffrey Wortman is a partner and co-lead of Seyfarth Shaw’s Downtown Los Angeles office Labor and Employment Group. His practice focuses on employment litigation with particular emphasis on complex and single plaintiff employment discrimination litigation and wage and hour litigation. Mr. Wortman provides advice and counsel regarding systematic approaches to handling of discrimination and harassment complaints; and serves as outside independent investigator regarding high profile complaints involving allegations of whistleblower protection and retaliation, as well as allegations of complex EEO claims. He has successfully defended employers in multiple employment arbitrations every year for the past decade. He is one of the leaders of Seyfarth’s Pay Equity Group and successfully defeated class certification in one of the first Pay Equity putative class actions under California’s Fair Pay Act. He also has extensive experience in litigation involving executive terminations. He has successfully defended employers in discrimination and wage/hour class actions as well as cases regarding allegations of wrongful discharge; sexual harassment; whistle-blowing; and retaliation and discrimination based on race, sex, religion, age, national origin, and disability. He regularly appears in state and federal courts, as well as before administrative agencies, FINRA, AAA and JAMS. Mr. Wortman also advises employers with regard to personnel policies and procedures, pay equity issues, contingent workforce issues, reductions in force, employee privacy rights, wage and hour issues, drug and alcohol testing, employment agreements, and protection of employer trade secrets and non-competition issues.

Jennifer Mora

Senior Counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Jennifer Fearnow

Jennifer is an experienced commercial litigator. She counsels clients in resolving complex disputes in all phases of litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts and alternative dispute resolution forums. Her practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, business disputes, and employment litigation.

Jennifer Kraft

Partner

Joan Casciari

Joan Casciari is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's Chicago office. Her practice is primarily devoted to employment law counseling with a particular specialty in the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Joan spends the majority of her time counseling clients on employment related issues. While she works with all types of employers, many of her clients are health care providers. Her work includes drafting documents, policy creation and review, training on best practices (particularly those relating to managing absences), advising on actions affecting groups of employees (such as reductions-in-force), and brokering settlements in employment related matters with employees’ attorneys. She also handles matters before the EEOC, the Illinois Department of Human Rights and state and federal courts. Earlier in her career, she tried a number of cases, both in administrative forums such as the Human Rights Commission, and in the state and federal courts. Joan also acts as the firm’s employment counsel.

John Tomaszewski

John Tomaszewski specializes in emerging technology and its application to business. His primary focus has been developing trust models to enable new and disruptive technologies and businesses to thrive. In the “Information Age”, management needs to have good advice and counsel on how to protect the capital asset which heretofore has been left to the IT specialists – its data. John’s expertise in the understanding of a company’s data protection and management needs provide a specialized point of view which allows for holistic solutions. A good answer should always solve at least three problems. As the co-leader of the Global Privacy & Security practice, John has significant experience counseling companies regarding data protection and information security throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. John regularly develops and implements data protection compliance programs for human resource outsourcing companies, cloud service providers, social media companies, and a host of traditional brick-and-mortar and emerging-technology clients. He also drafts and negotiates data licensing and technology transfer agreements, advises on the viability of digital signatures, consults on identity management systems, and addresses novel legal issues with artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. His clients have included myriad technology companies, as well as financial services, pharmaceutical, and e-commerce businesses of all sizes. John has been a co-author of several information security and privacy publications, including the PKI Assessment Guidelines and Privacy, Security and Information Management: An Overview; as well as publishing scholarly works of his own on the topic. He has also provided input to the drafting of various security and privacy laws around the world; including the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules system. He is a frequent speaker globally on the topics of cloud computing, Self Regulatory Organizations (“SROs”), cross-border privacy schemes, and secure e-commerce.

John Napoli

Partner, Co-Managing Partner of New York Office, Co-Chair of Tax Practice, and Co-Leader of Opportunity Zone Funds Team

John Lambremont

Jack Lambremont is a partner in the Labor & Employment Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Atlanta Office. He represents and counsels management clients in connection with all types of labor and employment matters arising under federal and state laws. His practice focuses primarily on labor relations and collective bargaining under the National Labor Relations Act. Mr. Lambremont has substantial hands-on experience working with employers of all sizes, across a broad range of industries, to ensure that labor relations complications do not hamper bottom line business objectives. He also provides high-level strategic counsel to businesses on how to minimize their risk for a labor disruption. Mr. Lambremont prides himself on a practical approach to labor relations that draws its essence from his clients’ business needs, workplace culture, present situation, and long-term priorities. By bringing a flexible approach to each engagement, Mr. Lambremont is able to tailor effective legal solutions to unique challenges employers face in today’s challenging marketplace. Mr. Lambremont is a frequent speaker on developments of interest in the field of labor law, and he has contributed to various publications on subjects related to labor law.

Jon Meer

Labor & Employment Department; Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Group; Complex Discrimination Litigation Practice Group

Jonathan Braunstein

Mr. Braunstein is a Partner in the firm’s Litigation Department, and a member of the firm’s Commercial Litigation, Healthcare, ERISA Benefits Litigation, and Securities and Financial Litigation Practice Groups, as well as the firm’s Health Care Fraud and Provider Billing Litigation Specialty Team. Working across-departments, practices areas and specialty teams, Mr. Braunstein provides valued and trusted advice and representation to local, national, and multinational clients in the healthcare, insurance, employee benefits, financial services, real estate, construction, and global defense industries. Mr. Braunstein has niche expertise representing welfare benefit plans and other payors in healthcare reimbursement and provider billing litigation under ERISA, RICO and state law, with a particular emphasis on “fraud, waste, and abuse” litigation. Mr. Braunstein also has substantial expertise representing insurers in complex coverage disputes, extra-contractual claims and litigation concerning life insurance, annuities, business property and commercial general liability policies, builder’s risk policies, hurricane and catastrophe claims, and business interruption coverages. Mr. Braunstein’s diverse practice has also included representation of real estate and mortgage service providers, construction contractors, private global defense contractors, investment and financial service advisors, bank depositors, and businesses engaged in international shipping and commerce. Mr. Braunstein has successfully litigated hundreds of individual and/or class action contract, tort and statutory claims on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts throughout California and beyond, including trials and appeals, and in matters set for arbitration before FINRA. Each year since 2009, Mr. Braunstein has been recognized by Northern California Super Lawyers as a business litigation "Rising Star," an exclusive designation awarded to only 2.5% of qualified attorneys. Mr. Braunstein serves as the Membership Vice-Chair of the ABA TIPS Section Life Insurance Committee, which works closely with the TIPS Section Health & Disability and Employee Benefits Committees.

Jonathan Karelitz

Partner

Joseph Damato

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP

Joseph Orzano

Partner Co-Chair, National Product Liability & Complex Tort Practice Group Co-lead, National Advertising & Marketing Group

Joshua Henderson

Joshua Henderson represents management in various industries in a broad range of labor and employment litigation and counseling. He is the national Vice Chair of the Firm’s Labor Management Relations Practice Group. His traditional labor law practice includes unfair labor practice litigation before the NLRB, collective bargaining, grievance and arbitrations, strikes and secondary boycotts, and Section 301 litigation. Through his occupational safety and health practice, Josh has counseled clients on compliance with workplace safety regulations, and has defended employers in administrative litigation before OSHA and Cal/OSHA. His practice also encompasses other complex employment litigation matters, including wage and hour class and collective actions, EEOC systemic litigation, and defense of retaliation, discrimination, and harassment claims.

Joshua Seidman

Mr. Seidman's practice primarily involves counseling clients on a broad spectrum of employment law issues, with an emphasis on nationwide paid leave and leave of absence matters. To date, Mr. Seidman has helped more than 350 companies navigate the constantly evolving patchwork of federal, state and local paid sick and family leave laws. Mr. Seidman regularly provides advice and counseling to employers on a wide array of Human Resources topics and issues, including policy development and review, day-to-day HR matters, and complying with federal, state, and local employment law. As part of his counseling, Joshua assists employers of varying sizes, including Fortune 500 companies, and operational scope, including in the finance, technology, transportation, telecommunications, health care, hospitality, restaurant, and retail industries. Mr. Seidman strategically and extensively advises employers on leave and absence management, most notably on nationwide compliance with federal, state, and local paid sick and family leave laws. Mr. Seidman takes a proactive approach to helping employers keep up with the ever-increasing amount of state and local paid leave regulations, develop and update internal paid leave policies, train managers, human resources, and benefits professionals, and institute best practices based on applicable legal and practical considerations and business objectives. He also has experience representing companies during state and municipal paid sick and family leave investigations and audits. Mr. Seidman guides clients on how to comply with other significant leave, absence management and accommodation laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, state vacation time laws, flexible scheduling laws, and many other rules and regulations. Joshua is regarded for his vast knowledge in the leave and accommodation space, regularly speaking and publishing on this topic in terms of national considerations and strategies and state and local developments. On the litigation side of his practice, Mr. Seidman defends clients during paid leave lawsuits and administrative charges, as well as single and multi-plaintiff litigation and wage-and-hour class and collective actions. Notably, Mr. Seidman defends management against discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims under federal, state, and city anti-discrimination laws, wage and hour claims under federal and state laws, and wrongful discharge and breach of contract claims. He also has experience with employment litigation before New York State administrative agencies, and disputes involving collective bargaining and grievance arbitration. Mr. Seidman's strong litigation experience provides him with the unique ability to provide practical, sound business advice, while also helping clients position themselves to defend or avoid litigation altogether. Additionally, Mr. Seidman is a registered patent attorney, and prior to his legal career, spent time working for both a national laboratory and major regional newspaper.

Karla Sanchez

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP.

Karla Grossenbacher

Chair of Seyfarth’s Washington D.C. Labor and Employment Practice, Head of National Work Place Privacy Team, Co-Chair of the Biometric Privacy and Litigation Compliance Team

Katherine Perrelli

Ms. Perrelli is a partner in the Litigation Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. She is a trial lawyer with over 25 years of experience representing regional, national, and international corporations in the financial services, transportation, manufacturing, technology, pharmaceutical, and staffing industries. Her commercial practice focuses on trial work and counseling in the areas of trade secrets and restrictive covenants, unfair competition and complex commercial disputes, including dealer/franchise disputes, and contract disputes. Her experience spans all forms of dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration, as well as litigation in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies across the country. On the employment side, Ms. Perrelli’s practice focuses on trial work and counseling regarding executive compensation and employer compliance with the ADA, ADEA, Title VII and all other state and governmental laws affecting employers.

Kathleen Cahill Slaught

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP; lead trial attorney for class action and single-plaintiff ERISA litigation and arbitration matters; lead trial attorney for large healthcare fraud litigation matter; lead attorney representing Employer Trustees in Taft-Hartley litigation and arbitration matters.

Kenneth Dolin

Labor & Employment Department; Labor Management Relations Practice Group

Kerry Friedrichs

Kerry Friedrichs is a partner in the firm’s Wage and Hour Litigation Practice Group. With a strong understanding of California and federal wage and hour law, she advises clients nationwide regarding a wide variety of wage and hour issues. She represents clients across industries, and has developed particular expertise in the healthcare, financial services, and retail industries. She represents employers in wage and hour class actions and in connection with Department of Labor investigations and claims before the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Kristin McGurn

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw; Co-Chair of the firm’s interdisciplinary Health Law Group

Kyllan Kershaw

Labor & Employment Department; Labor Management Relations Practice Group

Laura Maechtlen

Laura Maechtlen is the Chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s Labor and Employment Department. Laura helps to minimize her clients’ involvement in systemic discrimination litigation, and her practice is also focused on the defense of class, collective and multi-plaintiff actions. Laura also has experience litigating against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) in systemic actions, both at the early charge stage and in large-scale EEOC pattern-and-practice litigation. Laura is also a leading member of the Firm’s Workplace Compliance Solutions Practice, which focuses on change management and the delivery of proactive solutions that help global clients avoid mass litigation and develop internal compliance initiatives. Laura manages administrative agency investigations, including systemic initiative, pattern-and-practice and disparate impact claims involving unequal pay, hiring and pre-employment testing, background checking, promotion, and reasonable accommodation processes. Laura has trial experience, and has helped her clients secure defense verdicts in the California Superior Courts in the counties of San Francisco, Alameda and Santa Clara.Laura has handled a significant number of high-profile matters arising from employer practices and policies in the wake of the #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter movements, including investigations, audits, compliance reviews and rebuilding of company policy/practice following PR events and/or legal claims. Laura has experience counseling senior executives and Boards of Directors about how to resolve/avoid mass litigation and develop internal compliance initiatives issues. Laura has conducted a multitude of employee and management trainings, including diversity and inclusion training, anti-harassment training and positive employment relations training. Laura has assisted clients in conducting pay equity and “barrier analysis” related to underrepresented employees in the workforce, helping to craft solutions and strategies for addressing pay equity risk, improving diversity and creating a culture of inclusion.

Lawrence Lorber

As Senior Counsel at Seyfarth Shaw, Mr. Lorber’s practice focuses on employment counseling and regulatory enforcement representation. He regularly advises and represents employers in regulatory and government enforcement, executive contracts, terminations and benefit issues. He is often called upon to testify at Congressional and regulatory hearings.

Leon Rodriguez

Partner

Linda Haynes

Co-Chair, Institutional Investing Practice Group

Linda Schoonmaker

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

Lisa Schaures

Partner

Lisa Damon

Lisa Damon is the former national Chair of the firm's Labor and Employment Department and a member of the firm's Executive Committee. She is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt and leads the SeyfarthLean program throughout the firm. Her practice has a particular emphasis on the litigation of discrimination and harassment claims in the context of single-plaintiff and multi-plaintiff cases. She also counsels clients on the avoidance of employment litigation through improved management policies and practices, positive employee relations training and diversity assessment. She advises companies nationwide on issues of diversity and conducts privileged and non-privileged audits and assessments of the workplace.

Liz Deckman

Partner

Lorie Almon

Lorie Almon sits on the Firm’s Executive Committee and is Co-Managing Partner of its New York office. Her practice is focused on employment litigation, with an emphasis on complex litigation, collective and/or class proceedings. She specializes in high-stakes employment matters, regularly defending Fortune 500 companies and executives in high-stakes, high-profile legal proceedings. Her considerable trial experience includes jury and bench trials before federal courts, state courts and arbitration panels.

Mark Casciari

Counsel, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP.

Marshall Babson

Marshall Babson is Counsel in the Labor & Employment Department in the New York and Washington offices of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. A former Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Mr. Babson’s practice focuses on all aspects of labor relations, including litigation, counseling and arbitration. While serving as a Member of the NLRB, Mr. Babson participated in important cases which set forth new rules for pre-hire agreements, post-contract arbitration, and property rights. He has testified on the status of U.S. labor laws before Congress. He specializes in the acquisition, consolidation and reorganization of unionized businesses, the negotiation of international labor and industry collective bargaining agreements.

Matthew Gagnon

Matt’s practice focuses on defending employers against complex class and collective action litigation arising under federal and state wage and hour and anti-discrimination laws, as well as government-initiated investigations and litigation. He has extensive experience defending clients with a national presence in a wide range of industries, including franchisors, hospitality and restaurant companies, staffing companies, retailers, financial institutions, and education companies. His expertise covers the full scope of claims and theories arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII, ADEA, EPA, and the ADA. A significant portion of Mr. Gagnon’s practice entails litigation against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, both at the early charge stage and in large-scale EEOC pattern or practice litigation. Mr. Gagnon has written extensively about complex litigation topics and is the co-author of Seyfarth Shaw’s yearly analysis of key trends and developments in EEOC litigation, the "EEOC-Initiated Litigation” report, as well as the author of Seyfarth Shaw’s yearly analysis of equal pay litigation, “Developments In Pay Equity Litigation.”

Partner

Associate

Partner

Mr. McKeeman is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's San Francisco office. He is co-chair of the national Construction Practice Group, and he leads the firm's San Francisco Litigation Group. Mr. McKeeman specializes in transactional and litigation matters throughout Northern and Southern California involving construction law, real estate, and complex commercial matters. He is a member of the California Association of General Contractor’s Legal Advisory Committee. Mr. McKeeman has significant experience in representing public and private owners, contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers, and design professionals in construction disputes. Mr. McKeeman's knowledge of the construction industry is bolstered by several years of field experience in which he participated in the construction of large commercial and multi-dwelling residential structures. He also aids contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers in contract drafting, contract negotiation, contract interpretation, differing site conditions, bid protests, extra work, changes, payment disputes, design defects, construction defects, warranty claims, and delay and other impact claims. His practice includes both private and public construction projects. Mr. McKeeman has worked on a wide-variety of projects including commercial structures, hospitals, high-rise office buildings, condominiums, apartments, single-family residences, jails, justice centers, earthwork projects, amusement parks, parking structures, golf courses, and educational facilities. When disputes arise, Mr. McKeeman assists clients with claim preparation, arbitration, mediation, debt collection, and preparing and pursuing mechanics’ lien and stop notice remedies. He also advises clients about alternative dispute resolution procedures that offer viable alternatives to expensive and prolonged litigation. Mr. McKeeman assists clients with real estate transactions. These transactions include real property acquisition, development, and disposition, compliance with building regulations and codes, commercial leasing, eminent domain actions, license agreements, CEQA and real property exchanges. Mr. McKeeman’s clients include both private and public entities. Mr. McKeeman also represents clients in complex, multi-party civil litigation matters involving complex commercial disputes, unfair business practices, trade secret disputes, products liability, premises liability, and personal injury.

Molly Gabel

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Nancy Rafuse

Labor & Employment Department; Wage & Hour Litigation

Nick Geannacopulos

Nick Geannacopulos is the Managing Partner of the San Francisco office and a member of the Labor and Employment Department's Leadership Team. His practice is devoted to representing employers in all aspects of labor relations, including collective bargaining, strikes, unfair labor practice charges and trials, acquisitions and mergers involving union and non-union companies, class and contract arbitrations, and advice pertaining to the National Labor Relations Act. He has represented management in collective bargaining negotiations in many parts of the country in the energy, manufacturing cement, and entertainment industry. Nick also represents employers in all aspects of employment litigation, including claims related to wage hour issues, federal and state anti-discrimination laws, and ERISA. Nick works for clients in many industries including manufacturing, entertainment, and retail, and has been recognized as one of the top 28 employment lawyers for client service and results in a nationwide survey conducted by BTI Consulting.

Noah Finkel

Labor & Employment Department; Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Group; Single-Plaintiff Litigation Practice Group

Ofer Lion

Partner, Co-Leader of Tax-Exempt Organizations Team, and Office Chair of Los Angeles Downtown Corporate

Pamela Devata

Pamela Devata is a Labor and Employment Partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago. She’s a national authority and firm go-to for all issues related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), background screening compliance, use of criminal and credit history, and Electronic Signature issues as well online and manual employment applications. A nationally recognized employment counselor, Pam has participated in numerous interviews, speeches, webinars, and trainings to employers on the subject criminal history and credit checks as well as everything related to the background checks. She has leveraged her niche area of expertise into a thriving litigation class action practice. She counsels both employers, resellers, and consumer reporting agencies of background information on compliance requirements under FCRA and related state laws, develops procedures for appropriately handling high-volume national hiring needs, and she regularly litigates these issues on a single-plaintiff and class-wide basis throughout the country.

Paul Kruger

Partner and Chair of Structured Finance Practice Group

Paul Mattingly

Partner, Chair of Real Estate Department, and Member of Seyfarth’s Executive and Compensation Committees

Paul Pryzant

Partner

Raymond Baldwin

Labor and Employment Department; Complex Discrimination Litigation Practice Group; Single-Plaintiff Litigation Practice Group

Richard Mendelson

Partner

Richard Schwartz

Partner

Richard Lapp

Mr. Lapp is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles offices. His practice centers on high-consequence litigation. Fortune 500 companies have sought Mr. Lapp’s unique combination of legal expertise, business acumen, and strategic focus in contexts ranging from litigation to high-sensitivity boardroom investigations. He has successfully defended his clients against allegations of worker misclassification, discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, whistleblower retaliation, and wage and hour class actions before regulatory agencies and state and federal courts. Mr. Lapp has also represented Fortune 500 companies in affirmative commercial litigation, non-compete and trade secrets litigation. His diverse, cross-sector corporate clientele spans logistics, retail, consumer products manufacturing, financial services, technology services and products, and healthcare. An active litigator, Rich's practice currently extends across the nation, with recent victories secured in significant matters in California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York. A cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Law, Rich previously clerked for the Honorable Daniel A. Manion on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Rich is a contributing member of several Seyfarth specialty groups, including its Appellate team, Whistleblower team, Employment Whistleblower team, Fraud & Abuse, False Claims and Internal Investigations team, and Corporate Internal Investigations team. In 2015 he was recognized by Best Lawyers (Woodward/White Inc.) as a best lawyer in Chicago for labor & employment litigation, and The Legal 500 (Legalese Ltd.) called him "truly outstanding." He has been recognized in the area of Labor & Employment Litigation by The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White Inc.) recognized Rich in the area of Labor & Employment Litigation (2015-2020), and he was selected for mention in the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers (Law Business Research Ltd.). Rich speaks and publishes on a variety of issues facing employers, and he has authored law review articles on significant labor issues in scholarly journals including The University of Wisconsin Law Review and The University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor Law.

Richard Alfred

National Chair, Seyfarth Shaw LLP Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Group; Executive Committee Member, Boston Office Chair, Labor and Employment Department (2002-2014); defense of complex wage/hour lawsuits.

Robert Fisher

Labor & Employment Department; Labor Management Relations

Robert Bodansky

Partner and Chair of Institutional Investors Practice Group

Robert Flanagan

Mr. Flanagan is a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. He serves as lead counsel to many companies, both public and closely held, as well as tax-exempt organizations. He counsels these entities with regard to statutory and regulatory compliance matters, fiduciary governance and contract negotiations. He also advises companies regarding qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, as well as cash and equity-based incentive compensation programs.

Robert Milligan

Partner Co-Chair of Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Competes Editor of www.TradeSecretsLaw.com blog

Robin Freeman

Partner

Ronald Kramer

Labor and Employment Department; Labor and Employee Relations Practice Group; ERISA and Employee Benefits Practice Group.

Ronald Gart

Partner and Office Chair of Washington DC Real Estate

Partner

Partner

Partner

Labor & Employment Department; ERISA & Employee Benefits Practice Group

Sai Pidatala

Senior Counsel

Sam Schwartz-Fenwick

Mr. Schwartz-Fenwick is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. He is particularly well-versed in benefits-related litigation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Mr. Schwartz-Fenwick defends complex class actions and single-plaintiff lawsuits under ERISA. In the class action realm, he has defended various types of claims, including claims for benefits and claims for breach of fiduciary duty, including 401(k) fee litigation. In addition to his ERISA litigation practice, Sam has significant experience in general employment matters. He regularly assists in the defense of complex litigation matters brought under the National Labor Relations Act, and represents clients in collective bargaining, in hearings before the National Labor Relations Board and in grievance arbitrations. Sam represents clients in litigation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Illinois Human Rights Act. He also provides day-to-day counseling and advice to clients about the various laws affecting the employment relationship, especially as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion. Sam speaks nationwide and publishes regularly on a variety of employment law and litigation topics, and issues regarding diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. He has serves as a Senior Editor to Employee Benefits Law (ABA) and is a member of the ABA’s Labor & Employment Law Nominating Committee. Sam leads the firm’s LGBT Affinity Group and is the executive vice president of his synagogue.

Sara Farabow

Litigation Department; Construction Practice Group; Government Contracts Practice Group; Commercial Litigation Practice Group; Distressed Situations Resource Team

Scott Carlson

Mr. Carlson founded and Chairs Seyfarth Shaw’s eDiscovery and Information Governance practice and is nationally known in the these areas. His practice is entirely devoted to eDiscovery and information governance issues from both the consulting and litigation perspective. Mr. Carlson teaches a Masters of Law course on the subjects of eDiscovery, digital evidence, and computer forensics. Mr. Carlson’s strong technical background includes a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics and experience working in private industry as a software engineer. Mr. Carlson represents and provides eDiscovery advice to a broad range of clients from small and mid-sized companies up to the nation’s largest companies. He has represented clients in the all aspects of eDiscovery both in terms of preparedness and managing eDiscovery issues in individual matters throughout the country in both state and federal court. Mr. Carlson also advises clients in other information governance issues including, among others, computer forensics issues, records information management, information security / cyber security and IT related policies and practices. Also an experienced litigator, Mr. Carlson has represented clients in a wide range of commercial disputes including commercial contracts, purchase agreements, lease agreements, Uniform Commercial Code transactions, misappropriation of trade secrets, software licensing agreements shareholder suits, and tortious interference claims. He has also defended clients in actions involving negligence, wrongful death, fraud, retaliatory discharge, mass tort, and a variety of class actions. Mr. Carlson is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. Using Lean Six Sigma and project management methodologies, our SeyfarthLean approach delivers increased value to our clients at a time of increased market pressures and competitive demands. Seyfarth’s commitment to delivering legal services in a new way—with an emphasis on value and continuous improvement—has been praised by the Association of Corporate Counsel as being "five years ahead of every other AmLaw 200 firm."

Sharon Cook

Sharon Cook (formerly Poorak) is a Partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's national Business Immigration Practice Group. She focuses her business immigration law practice primarily on H, L, PERM, I140 and related I485 issues. Sharon represents corporate clients in a wide variety of industries, developing comprehensive immigration plans to ensure consistency among filed applications and compliance with all applicable regulations.

Shawn Wood

Mr. Wood is a partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw, LLP and a member of the firm’s National Trial Team. He serves as national chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group.

Stan Hill

Labor & Employment Department; Single Plaintiff Litigation

Stanley Jutkowitz

Partner

Stanley Bloch

Partner

Steven Meier

Partner, Chair of Corporate Department, Co-Chair of Tax Practice, and Co-Leader of Opportunity Zone Funds Team

Steven Richman

Partner and Vice Chair of Institutional Investors Practice Group

Stuart Newman

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP

Suzanne Saxman

Partner and Chair of Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group

Thomas Posey

Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Tracy Billows

Ms. Billows is a partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Chair of the Chicago office Labor & Employment Department, concentrating her practice on representing and counseling employers throughout the country in the entire range of employment law matters. Her work has included the representation of Fortune 500 companies, as well as medium and small sized employers. Ms. Billows represents employers in single plaintiff, multi-plaintiff, and class action litigation matters related to employment discrimination claims under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and similar state discrimination laws.Ms. Billows provides extensive advice and counseling to clients, helping them identify and implement proactive solutions, on a wide array of Human Resources topics and issues, including policy development and review, auditing the Human Resources functions, leave and absence management, EEO compliance, restructurings and reductions in force, employee relations, labor relations, performance management, discipline and discharge and various other areas, with an emphasis on instituting best practices and avoiding litigation. Ms. Billows regularly conducts investigations for clients related to allegations of harassment, discrimination, retaliation and other misconduct. Ms. Billows utilizes SeyfarthLean® to improve the leave and accommodation policies and practices of clients, providing clients a consistent approach to managing these complex issues. She is a Six Sigma Yellow Belt.Ms. Billows has conducted training for employers throughout the country and through Seyfarth Shaw at Work, including in the areas of leave management and reasonable accommodation, EEO and non-harassment, managing for success, Employee Handbooks, Codes of Conduct and Ethics, managing within a union environment and positive employee relations. Her interactive programs are both skill enhancing and compliance based. Ms. Billows brings a unique perspective to her clients. Prior to her legal career, she was a human resources executive in the corporate community. With first-hand knowledge of the challenges faced by her clients, Ms. Billows is able to advise them in all areas of labor and employment law, finding a way to manage compliance issues while also addressing business needs. This experience allows Ms. Billows to take a proactive approach to her clients’ labor and employment issues.

Trevor Tullius

Associate

Valerie Hoffman

Ms. Hoffman is a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP where she has a nation-wide practice of labor and employment law and has served in various management roles at the Firm. As counsel to management, Ms. Hoffman advises employers of all varieties and sizes, including Fortune 100 technology, financial services, professional services, hospitality, and manufacturing companies. While Ms. Hoffman has a broad-based employment law advice and counsel practice, she has a particular focus on strategies to prevent and resolve issues relating to employment discrimination, including pay equity and glass ceiling issues, OFCCP defense and affirmative action compliance, and advice about legally defensible diversity, equity and inclusion practices. She is a core leader of the Firm’s Pay Equity Group and founded and is Co-Chair of the Firm’s nationally prominent OFCCP, Affirmative Action & Diversity practice. In addition, Ms. Hoffman co-founded and co-chairs Seyfarth’s Organizational Strategy & Analytics group. This forward-facing people analytics practice works with employers to design and implement metrics for tracking, assessment and achievement of workforce objectives including effective talent acquisition and management, workforce planning, leadership development, pay equity, diversity, equity and inclusion, reductions in force, and other objectives where data can be leveraged to improve human capital management and work life. Ms. Hoffman also provides counsel and advice on diversity, equity and inclusion best practices, metrics, progress management and change management. Employers across the country value her broad knowledge of legally defensible and practical solutions for achieving diversity, equity and inclusion objectives. She has extensive experience counseling senior leaders about these issues and their intersection with employment discrimination law. Ms. Hoffman receives national media coverage of her observations about issues involving employment-related issues, including workplace metrics, employment discrimination, government compliance, glass ceiling issues, pay equity and diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a popular speaker and writer on these topics.

Vincent Sama

Whitney Schmidt

Partner

William Berkowitz

William Berkowitz is a partner in the Litigation Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. His practice focuses on antitrust, franchise, distribution, mergers and acquisitions, and other commercial litigation. Mr. Berkowitz has tried cases in state and federal courts and administrative agencies in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. He has argued appeals in the New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware courts of appeal and before the United States Courts of Appeal for the First Circuit (three times), Third Circuit, Fourth Circuit and Eleventh Circuit. He has also represented clients before the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board and a number of state agencies. Mr. Berkowitz is recognized by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in antitrust. He is also ranked by Best Lawyers as leading lawyer in franchise law and by Benchmark Litigation as a Massachusetts litigation “star.” Beyond litigation, Mr. Berkowitz routinely consults with clients on mergers and acquisitions regarding compliance with federal and state antitrust laws, state franchise laws, the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and foreign premerger notification laws.

William P. Perkins

Bill Perkins is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP's New York office where he conducts a nation-wide practice advising clients on a wide variety of employment and labor law matters, including all forms of discrimination and harassment claims, and proactive measures to avoid such claims, reductions-in-force, OWBPA/WARN compliance, wage and hour claims, pay equity issues, contract negotiations, executive employment agreements, affirmative action plan design and OFCCP compliance review defense, executive employment contracts, FMLA/ADA issues, day-to-day advice and counsel, as well as human resources policies.

Annette Tyman

Joseph Damato

Legal 500

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