Biography

Ms. Olson is a partner of Seyfarth Shaw LLP and a member of its National Labor and Employment Law Steering Committee and National Chairperson of its Complex Discrimination Litigation Practice Group. She is the immediate past National Chairperson of the Labor and Employment Practice Department. Her 20 years of practice have concentrated in all areas of litigation, with a concentration in complex labor and employment law, representing companies nationwide in challenges to the independent contractor status of workers, employment discrimination and harassment matters, and wage and hour matters. Most recently, Ms. Olson was lead defense trial counsel in one of the largest sexual harassment cases ever brought by the United States government against a private employer. She has litigated discrimination cases through both successful summary judgment motions and favorable jury verdicts in the context of EEOC pattern and practice multi-plaintiff cases, reductions in force, individual terminations and harassment allegations. In March, 2008, Ms. Olson was named as one of the Nation’s Most Powerful Employment Attorneys by Human Resource Executive. In 2008 she was voted one of the Top Ten Women Business Lawyers in Illinois. She is regularly lauded by commentaries for her effective litigation style, particularly in complex class discrimination matters.

She is a key member of Seyfarth Shaw’s inter-disciplinary Task Force on FLSA Issues. In this capacity, she has assisted a number of nationwide employer organizations in providing the Department of Labor with comments on the draft regulations to update the white-collar definitions of exempt status for overtime purposes under the FLSA.

She has also worked extensively with numerous associations on legal issues relating to the use of non-employee workers, including: Air Courier Conference of America; American Association of Meat Processors; Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce; Illinois Manufacturers’ Association; Illinois State Chamber of Commerce; Information Technology Association of America; The Management Association of Illinois; Messenger Courier Association of the Americas; Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council; National Association of the Remodeling Industry; National Public Employer Labor Relations Association; New England Newspaper Association; National Tour Association; Newspaper Association of America (NAA); Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce; Northern States Circulation Managers Association; Mississippi Circulation Managers Association; National Newspaper Association; the Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania and California Newspaper Publishers Association; Association of Free Community Papers and Inland Press Association.

Throughout the last ten years she has also regularly appeared before the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, the EEOC, and the United States Department of Labor on her own behalf (as a recognized expert in various fields) and on behalf of the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Society for Human Resource Management. In these capacities she has provided the business perspective on proposed legislation to amend the following laws: the Equal Pay Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the application of white collar exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Internal Revenue Code and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. She has also worked closely with employer associations in connection with various issues relating to the OFCCP’s, EEOC’s, and U.S. Department of Labor’s enforcement policies and their effect on employers. Ms. Olson submitted comments on behalf of a coalition of over 20,000 employers on the IRS’ Training Guide “Employee or Independent Contractor?” She has also worked with the National Newspaper Association, the NAA and the American Association of Independent News Distributors to successfully amend the Internal Revenue Code to add industry specific exemptions excluding newspaper distributors from the definition of employee. In California, she has provided counsel to a number of state lobbying efforts in connection with the application of various child labor restrictions to newspaper solicitors. She regularly represents newspaper associations as amicus curiae before various federal and state agencies on the issue of the appropriate factual and legal analysis to apply to independent contractor status.

Ms. Olson is a frequent speaker on all issues relating to the use of independent contractors, and has published numerous articles and chapters on various labor issues, including two chapters on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Independent Contractors in Federal Employment Laws and Regulations - How to Comply. She is co-editor of “An Overview of Wage and Hour Laws As They Apply to Newspapers” published by NAA, American Society of Newspaper Editors. Monthly, Ms. Olson publishes a column entitled “Ask Seyfarth” that answers a wide range of employment-related questions in The Inlander. Recently, she has also been quoted on labor and employment issues in publications such as: The Daily Labor Report, The Chicago Tribune, Crains Chicago Business, the Wall Street Journal, Presstime, Editor & Publisher, HR Magazine and HR Wire.  She has been described as “a media law whiz” in the San Francisco Daily Journal.

Education

J.D., University of Michigan Law School (1983)

B.A., University of Michigan, with high honors (1980)

Recipient of Highest Honors Award; Eita Krom Scholar in 1980 For Published Honors Thesis on Survey Research On the Effect Between Effort and Reward

Admissions

• California
• Illinois

Courts

• United States Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and District of Columbia Circuits
• U.S. District Courts for the Central, Eastern and Northern Districts of California
• U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Central Districts of Illinois