Seyfarth Picks Up Top Employment Litigator From Weil (Correct)

Seyfarth Shaw picked up the former head of Weil Gotshal & Manges’ employment litigation group to launch a new cross-practice advisory group.

Gary Friedman joins Seyfarth’s New York office as a partner and member of its national labor and employment department leadership team, the firm announced Monday.

Friedman has worked with and been across the table from Seyfarth on matters over the years, but what drew him to the firm was their work on the “high-end, bet the company litigation, investigations work and the kinds of matters that clients really separate the wheat from the chaff with respect to selecting counsel,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Law.

Friedman, who joins Seyfarth as employment chair of the firmwide complex litigation group, will also chair the firm’s newly created team that focuses on the nexus of labor and employment law and complex commercial litigation.

“We realized that there could be a better way that we knit together those complex litigators from across the firm, not just in labor and employment, but also with our commercial litigation colleagues and really make sure that we are meeting the market on the top-end matters,” said Laura Maechtlen, chair of Seyfarth’s national labor and employment department in an interview.

There’s been a significant increase in demand for employment-related commercial work and in looking at strategic options to address clients’ needs, Seyfarth decided to form an advisory group of labor and employment leaders to guide these efforts, Seyfarth Shaw managing partner and chair Lorie Almon said in a statement.

“Gary’s talent and legal pedigree made him a natural choice to help lead this group,” she said.

Friedman has more three decades of experience representing employers in all areas of labor and employment law including class actions, restrictive covenant disputes, internal investigations, and other complex employment, commercial litigation, and arbitration matters.

Friedman joined Weil in 2007 from Mayer Brown where he spent more than 15 years and was global co-chair of its labor and employment practice.

Maechtlen said the firm is looking to add to the group with potential other partner additions on both coasts and in its complex litigation and labor and employment practices.