Laura J. Maechtlen is the National Chair of the Labor and Employment Department at Seyfarth Shaw LLP and is the Co-Chair of the Firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Tea practice is focused on employment litigation and includes the defense of class, collective and representative actions. Laura also has experience litigating against the Equa Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) in systemic actions, both at the early charge stage a large-scale EEOC pattern-and-practice litigation. In addition to her litigation practice, Laura also provides day-to-day counseling and advice to clients about the various law —ecting the employment relationship. Laura is a national leader on issues related to diversity and inclusion in the legal industry, and has held a variety of leadership positions through which she has advocated systemic improvement in the legal industry in the areas of diversity and inclusion. She currently serves as the Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors for the California M Counsel Program, as well as the Executive Committee for Lambda Legal. She is a previous Latina Commissioner for the Hispanic National Bar Association, President of the National LGBT Bar Association, and Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). Laura speaks and publishes regularly on a variety of employment law and litigation topics, and issues regarding diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, and has bee quoted on those topics by the San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Reuters, The Recorder, Vogue, The Daily Journal, the Insurance Journal, CIO.com, Emplo Law 360, and others. She has also served as a contributing editor to multiple editions of The Fair Labor Standards Act (ABA) and The Developing Labor Law (BNA).

Corporate Counsel Institute