The Seyfarth Workplace Class Action Blog is a one-of-a-kind resource for corporate employers, HR professionals, C-suite executives, and corporate counsel facing the complex world of high-stakes workplace litigation. It is the daily platform from Seyfarth's Annual Workplace Class Action Report, the sole compendium in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to complex workplace litigation. Since we began publishing this annual report seven years ago, both the number of cases filed and the financial exposure that they pose to companies has increased exponentially. As plaintiffs’ attorneys bring increasingly sophisticated litigation against employers that combine claims under multiple statutes, the financial exposure has become greater for businesses. Seyfarth's Workplace Class Action Litigation Report has become the trusted "go-to" reference guide to explain the latest trends in complex employment litigation. Given the enormous financial stakes, pro-active planning and legal compliance programs — to get ahead of these litigation risks — are critically important for businesses. Our Blog is designed to keep Corporate America informed of the latest trends and cutting-edge developments relative to the various forms of challenges employers face, including employment discrimination, ERISA, and wage & hour class actions, governmental enforcement lawsuits brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and other complex employment-related litigation.

Our team of bloggers are Seyfarth's complex workplace litigation practitioners who defend these types on a nationwide basis and on the cutting-edge of the evolving workplace theories of liability and exposure. They are thought leaders in their field who are on the forefront of complex workplace litigation issues.

Gerald Maatman, Jr.

Gerald Maatman, Jr. is a partner in the Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Group in Seyfarth Shaw's Chicago office. Mr. Maatman has a primary emphasis in his practice on defending employers sued in employment-related class actions and EEOC pattern and practice lawsuits brought in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Mr. Maatman also pioneered the process of conducting employment practices audits to assist employers in structuring effective and practical personnel policies and protocols. These audits are designed to minimize the incidence of employment-related class action litigation and to maximize management discretion and workplace productivity. Mr. Maatman's work in this area has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine.

Lorie Almon

Lorie Almon co-chairs Seyfarth Shaw's National Wage & Hour Litigation Practice Group and is co-managing partner of Seyfarth Shaw’s New York office.  Ms. Almon was recognized in the January 2011 issue of The American Lawyer as one of the top "45 Under 45" women lawyers in The Am Law 200.  She was also named as one of the nation’s “Fab Fifty” litigators under the age of 45 in 2007 by The American Lawyer and selected as one of the top “40 Under 40” lawyers in the United States by the National Law Journal in 2005.

Ms. Almon’s practice is focused on employment litigation, with an emphasis on complex litigation, collective and/or class proceedings. She specializes in litigation of wage and hour claims, regularly defending Fortune 500 companies in high stakes litigation brought pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage payment laws. Ms. Almon also serves as lead counsel in discrimination class actions and multi-district cases, chairing teams of attorneys across the country.  Her considerable trial experience includes numerous jury and bench trials before federal courts, state courts and arbitration panels.

Tracy M. Billows

Tracy M. Billows is a partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP concentrating her practice on representing and counseling employers in a variety of areas of labor and employment law. 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. She also represents management in matters arising under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA).

Rebecca Bjork

Rebecca Bjork is of counsel in the Labor and Employment Department in the Washington D.C. office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Ms. Bjork has represented companies in products liability, consumer, and employment class action litigation in the pharmaceutical, automotive, transportation, and food and beverage industries. Ms. Bjork has particular experience in multidistrict litigation proceedings, including petitioning the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to establish such proceedings and appoint a specific federal court to oversee them, transferring newly-filed state court cases to them through removal and remand opposition briefing, and managing pretrial activities in the transferee court. Ms. Bjork also has litigation experience in several areas of class action defense, including discovery, class certification, summary judgment, and fairness hearing briefing.

Christopher J. DeGroff

Christopher J. DeGroff is a partner in the Labor and Employment Department in the Firm's Chicago office, with a practice largely focused on multi-plaintiff and class/collective actions. Mr. DeGroff's class action experience spans the scope of employment law theories. Mr. DeGroff also has extensive experience litigating against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), both at the early charge stage and in large-scale EEOC pattern-and-practice litigation. Mr. DeGroff has developed innovative strategies for addressing wide-ranging governmental requests for information and has handled complex regional and national EEOC investigations, typially resulting in no action being taken against our clients at all. When the EEOC has resorted to litigation, Mr. DeGroff has been instrumental in defending our clients against these often high-profile systemic cases, working with any number of class action teams to achieve efficient and effective case resolution. Mr. DeGroff's class experience also includes a significant understanding of emerging electronic discovery issues, and has conducted speeches and published articles on electronic discovery and other high-technology issues.

Pamela Q. Devata

Pamela Devata is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. She specializes in all aspects of employment defense including counseling, training, and litigation. Ms. Devata's employment litigation practice includes state and federal court cases involving allegations of sex, race, and national origin discrimination and harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and state laws, allegations of retaliation, allegations of disability discrimination and reasonable accommodation issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state statutes, allegations of age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), allegations of discrimination under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and wage and hour disputes. She also has extensive experience with employment litigation in administrative agencies.

Alex S. Drummond

Alex S. Drummond is a partner in the Labor and Employment Department in the Atlanta office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. His practice includes the representation of management in employment litigation matters before state and federal courts, at trial and appellate levels, as well as federal and state agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations. Mr. Drummond also counsels clients on a wide variety of employment matters, including disability accommodation, family and medical leave under federal and state laws, workplace investigations, training, background checks, pre-hire testing, performance assessment and discipline, workforce reductions-in-force, whistleblower claims, defamation, handbooks and policies review, and terminations.

William F. Dugan

William F. Dugan is a partner of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, the leading national labor and employment law firm. Mr. Dugan is a member of the Labor & Employment Practice Group and resides in the firm's Chicago office. Mr. Dugan has represented employers in a wide array of state and federal matters, including litigation of employment contract claims, wrongful discharge claims, privacy claims, various tort based common law claims, harassment claims, and discrimination and retaliation claims brought pursuant to Title VII, the FMLA, the ADA, the ADEA and various other state and local statutes.

Dana Howells

Dana Howells is of counsel in the Labor and Employment Department in the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Ms. Howells focuses her practice on advising businesses on all aspects of employment relationships from pre-hire screening to terminations and reductions-in-force. Areas of concentration include ERISA and employee benefits, discrimination, wage and hour, contacts, severance, compensation, FMLA and mandated leaves, disability/reasonable accommodations, harassment/internal investigations, privacy and workplace violence prevention. In addition to advising employers on compliance and problem-solving, Ms. Howells has represented employers before administrative agencies, self-regulatory agencies, in jury and bench trials, and before state and federal appellate courts. Depending on the client's goals, she has resolved many disputes through arbitration, mediation and negotiation.

Lynn A. Kappelman

Lynn A. Kappelman is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw's Boston office practicing in the area of labor and employment litigation, including issues arising under ADEA, Title VII, ERISA, ADA, and all other state and governmental laws affecting employers. She has successfully litigated many trials to verdict, negotiated hundreds of cases to settlement, briefed and argued appeals to the First, Second and Third Circuits and state appellate courts. Ms. Kappelman handles complex discrimination litigation including class action gender discrimination, race discrimination and gender equity cases, as well as EEOC pattern and practice charges.

Daniel B. Klein

Daniel Klein is a partner in the Labor and Employment Department of Seyfarth Shaw’s Boston office.  Mr. Klein’s practice includes the representation of management in employment and non-competition litigation matters before state and federal courts, at trial and appellate levels, as well as federal and state agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities.  As a member of the firm’s Complex Discrimination Litigation Practice Group, Mr. Klein has defended employers in a variety of complex discrimination cases, including multi-plaintiff discrimination lawsuits, EEOC pattern and practice cases, and collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Mr. Klein also has defended employers against the full spectrum of cases involving allegations of discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, defamation, and wage and hour violations, as well as representing employers in non-competition and contract disputes.

Laura J. Maechtlen

Laura J. Maechtlen is a partner in the San Francisco office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Ms. Maechtlen's practice is focused on employment litigation and includes the defense of wage and hour class and collective actions arising out of alleged violations of the California Labor Code and/or the Fair Labor Standards Act. Ms. Maechtlen's practice also focuses on employment litigation of discrimination and harassment cases brought as multi-plaintiff and class actions under federal and state statutory laws. Ms. Maechtlen also has experience litigating against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), both at the early charge stage and in large-scale EEOC pattern-and-practice litigation.

Condon A. McGlothen

Condon A. McGlothlen is a partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and a co-chair of the firm’s ADA Task Force. He represents employers in EEO and other employment law matters, and has extensive experience representing companies in complex employment matters, including class actions and pattern and practice cases, as well as with the development and implementation of advanced hiring, promotion, compensation, and separation systems. Mr. McGlothlen regularly handles matters under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Americans With Disabilities Act, as well as employment-related provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Mr. McGlothlen also chairs the Firm’s Employee Separations Task Force, which focuses on reduction-in-force and release issues under the ADEA, and he has advised hundreds of companies on such issues.

Kathryn "Chris" Palamountain

Kathryn Palamountain is senior counsel in the Labor & Employment practice group of Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

Kendra K. Paul

Kendra Koneman Paul is an associate in the firm's Labor & Employment practice group and is resident in the Houston office. Ms. Paul’s practice focuses on the representation of employers in all aspects of labor and employment ligation before federal and state courts and administrative agencies throughout the nation, including employment discrimination lawsuits, FLSA collective actions, National Labor Relations Act matters, and trade secrets and restrictive covenant matters.

Jennifer Riley

Jennifer Riley is an associate in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. She is a member of the Firm's Labor & Employment Department. Ms. Riley practices in the employment litigation area, with a particular emphasis on complex collective and class action proceedings. She has represented clients in a wide range of complex civil litigation matters in federal and state courts across the country. Her extensive litigation experience includes serving as trial counsel in federal court bench and jury trials, as well as in arbitration proceedings.

David B. Ross

David B. Ross specializes in defending companies in class action and complex employment litigation matters, including EEOC pattern and practice lawsuits. He has been lead counsel or co-counsel on numerous matters in a wide range of industries, including financial services, insurance, consumer retail, hospitality, media, utilities and education. With a graduate degree and background in economics and statistics, Mr. Ross has a particular expertise in the application of these disciplines in complex employment cases and has taken a lead role in the Firm in this area. Mr. Ross has also represented companies in virtually ever area of labor and employee law, with extensive experience in traditional labor law and arbitration, securities-related employment matters before FINRA and the NYSE, and in litigation of claims arising under EEO statutes, ADEA, ADA, FLSA, USSERA, OSHA, WARN and state statutes governing individual employment rights and benefits.