Biography

Christopher Garcia is a partner in the Labor & Employment Practice Group of Seyfarth Shaw. Mr. Garcia has an AV Peer Review Rating by Martindale; he is also a member of the Federal Trial Bar for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Garcia concentrates in defending corporations and their executives in employment discrimination lawsuits, including multi-plaintiff and class action suits, brought in federal and state courts throughout the United States. He also counsels corporations on employment related matters, including policy-making and training.

Mr. Garcia was one of the trial attorneys who defeated class certification of over 300 employees in a case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Texas in 2006. This decision and case were highlighted in the Daily Labor Report, No. 65, April 5, 2006. Other representative cases include multi-plaintiff discrimination and harassment claims in St. Louis, Missouri, Arizona, California, New York and New Jersey.

Mr. Garcia has successfully argued before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Decisions of his cases include: Louis Nese v. Nordic Construction Services, Inc., 405 F.3d 638 (7th Cir. 2005)(Affirmed). Nese was a “regarded as” disabled ADA claim in which the 7th Circuit for the first time rejected the 6th Circuit holding in Ross v. Campbell Soup, 237 F.3d 701, 708 (2001) upon which Plaintiff/Appellant chiefly relied on appeal. In Ross the Court worked backward from evidence of pretext to find a covered disability. In Nese the 7th Circuit re-affirmed the McDonnel Douglas paradigm, rejected the analysis in Ross and affirmed summary judgment for defendant Nordic Construction, setting the precedent within the 7th Circuit.

Mr. Garcia also defends corporations sued in civil rights, and denial of contract/services lawsuits. He has tried cases involving sexual assault, battery and workplace fatalities. His most recent victory in 2006 involved an assault in the workplace by the plaintiff’s direct supervisor (the assailant was later convicted of the attack and that conviction came into evidence at trial). The state court in Pontiac Michigan allowed cameras and press into the courtroom. After a two hour deliberation the jury returned with a unanimous verdict for the defense.

Mr. Garcia has also presented seminars and training workshops throughout the country on multiple-employer liability and professional malpractice issues. Mr. Garcia writes and lectures extensively on employment discrimination and labor law topics and has authored numerous articles involving Title VII defense, particularly issues involving the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Mr. Garcia’s experience in psychiatric and other medical malpractice litigation gives him special expertise with disability claims and suits involving claims for psychological and emotional damages.

Mr. Garcia has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association for Down Syndrome.

Education

J.D., Cornell University Law School (1993)

Certificate of Concentration in Trial Advocacy

Fellow of the Cornell University Sage Graduate School in English Language & Literature (1985-'91)

B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara (1984)

Admissions

• Illinois

Courts

• United States Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida