Laura Maechtlen is the National Chair of the Labor and Employment Department at Seyfarth Shaw LLP and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.  Her practice is focused on employment litigation and includes 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 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 for systemic improvement in the legal industry in the areas of diversity and inclusion.  She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the California Minority Counsel Program.  She is a previous Latina Commissioner for the Hispanic National Bar Association, President of the National LGBT Bar Association, Chair of the CA Minority Counsel Program, and Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). Laura is also a founding member of SeyfarthLife, her Firm’s core initiative focused on health, wellness and resiliency for all personnel.

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 appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Reuters, The Recorder, Vogue, The Daily Journal, the Insurance Journal, CIO.com, Employment 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).