BakerHostetler announced today that Joel C. Griswold and Melissa A. Siebert have joined the firm’s Employment and Labor Group as Partners in its Chicago office. Both come to BakerHostetler from K&L Gates LLP, where Griswold served as chair of the Wage and Hour Subcommittee for the firm’s Labor and Employment Group. They are the most recent high-profile additions to BakerHostetler’s nationally recognized Employment and Labor Group and continue the firm’s growth in major markets.
As a trial attorney, Griswold represents clients in matters ranging in procedural complexity from nationwide putative class and collective actions to individual disputes. He focuses his practice on issues involving wage and hour laws, restrictive covenants, trade secrets, Title VII, the Family Medical Leave Act, breach of contract and commercial torts. He is a member of the Trial Bar for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and chairs or co-chairs trials in state and federal court. He regularly represents companies being targeted by Attorneys General in investigations and lawsuits throughout the country and has been appointed to act as a Special Assistant State’s Attorney and Special Assistant Attorney General in Illinois. Griswold earned his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.
Siebert concentrates her practice in employment litigation, wage and hour litigation, and employment law counseling. She regularly advises employers on a range of employment matters. Using her combined legal and practice business experience, she provides counsel on a variety of strategic and day-to-day issues, including the interaction between the FMLA/ADA and workers’ compensation, restrictive covenants, company-wide policy creation and implementation, employee investigations, discipline and termination, workforce reductions and restructurings, and employment agreements. Siebert has a focus on nationwide and putative state class/collective actions under the FLSA and state wage and hour laws. She also represents employers defending actions in federal and state court, and before various federal, state and county human rights commissions alleging sexual and racial harassment; race, pregnancy, sex, national origin, age, religious and disability discrimination; retaliation; wrongful discharge; and claimed violations of Title VII, ADEA, ADA, FMLA and the FLSA. Siebert previously worked as in-house labor and employment counsel and in various human resources management roles for Tribune Company, its subsidiaries and affiliates. Siebert earned a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
“Labor and Employment is one of BakerHostetler’s strengths, and the addition of Joel and Melissa boosts our ability to deliver strategic, comprehensive labor and employment-related counseling and litigation services to employers across the country,” said Ronald G. Linville, chair of BakerHostetler’s Employment and Labor Group. “Joel’s trial experience and Melissa’s extensive background handling labor and employment matters for companies of all sizes will expand the capabilities of our team and enhance the counsel we provide to clients.”
“We’re pleased to welcome Joel and Melissa to our office here in Chicago,” said Ronald S. Okada, Managing Partner of BakerHostetler’s Chicago office. “Their knowledge and experience is a tremendous addition to the office and will strengthen our deep bench of employment and labor attorneys across the country.”
