Chambers & Partners Women in Law Awards Select Seyfarth Shaw National Labor & Employment Chair Lisa Damon "U.S. Employment Lawyer of the Year"

Contact:  Ivette Delgado, Senior Public Relations Associate
(212) 218-5273, idelgado@seyfarth.com

NEW YORK (February 6, 2012) –  Leading law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced that Lisa J. Damon, Chair of the firm’s national Labor & Employment Department, has been selected by global legal directory publisher Chambers & Partners as Employment Lawyer of the Year at the inaugural Chambers USA Women in Law Awards.

The awards, which honor outstanding female professionals in the U.S. legal community, were presented on February 2 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The short list of 11 potential honorees was a Who's-Who of the nation’s leading management-side labor & employment lawyers, including prominent litigators and trial lawyers, legal scholars, and law firm leaders. Damon’s candidacy was distinguished by outstanding legal results for clients, many innovations in client service, including leading the development and application of Six Sigma methodologies to the practice of law at Seyfarth, known firmwide as SeyfarthLean. 

Seyfarth is perhaps the only law firm to have trained its workforce – including non-lawyer staff – in Lean Six Sigma-style techniques. Over the last several years, Damon has become a leading – and outspoken – advocate of applying Lean methodologies to the practice of law. SeyfarthLean, the firm's award-winning client service model, utilizes a mix of technology, process management and project management techniques to devise innovative client-focused solutions to the delivery of legal service. Damon has actively made Lean an integral part of her employment practice, with extraordinarily successful results.

Seyfarth Chairman and Managing Partner J. Stephen Poor said, "We are tremendously proud of Lisa and all of her accomplishments, in both her substantive legal practice and the leadership and inspiration that she provides to the lawyers of our firm. This well-deserved award by Chambers is an honor and testament to her indelible mark on Seyfarth, on labor and employment law and, indeed, on the practice and business of law in general."

The award continues an illustrious start to the year for Seyfarth’s 350-lawyer Labor & Employment practice, which was recognized in January by Law360 as a 2011 “Practice Group of the Year.” The publication noted the practice group’s contribution of two amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court that helped shape its historic Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision, and the firm’s subsequently being the first to successfully employ the Dukes ruling in a Fair Labor Standards Act case.

Damon was a founding partner of Seyfarth’s Boston office and has overseen its growth from seven lawyers to more than 80, with practice groups in real estate, corporate, and litigation, as well as labor & employment. An ABA Journal article, “Legal Rebels,” named her one of the country’s 10 most innovative attorneys.  She is the mother of three sons, ages 21, 17 and 12.

“I’m deeply honored to have been singled out by Chambers as their selection of Employment Lawyer of the Year – and to stand alongside a group of the most eminent women practicing labor and employment law in the U.S., as named by our own professional peers,” Damon said. “Those of us who work in this space know that the issues and challenges our clients face in employment matters touch every facet of their business and have enormous consequences for all stakeholders – not only employees, but customers, investors, outside suppliers, the media. I absolutely love helping our clients work through their toughest workplace concerns and am so pleased to be able to share this recognition with them, as with my colleagues at Seyfarth.”

Damon’s honor is the latest in a string of recent accolades for individual Seyfarth lawyers. Earlier this month, partners Gerald Maatman (New York and Chicago) and Nick Geannacopulos (San Francisco) were named 2012 BTI Client Service All-Stars, a selection based on interviews with corporate counsel conducted by law-firm ranking service BTI. This past November, the firm was honored by the Financial Times as a "Top Innovative Law Firm," with Steve Poor singled out as the U.S. legal industry’s "Legal Innovator of the Year." Seyfarth has also been recently named to BTI’s Client Service A-Team, a short list of law firms recognized for superior attention to client service.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as well as internationally in London. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate and real estate. The firm’s clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, and our practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the economy. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com .