Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. is a partner of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, the leading national employment and labor law firm. Mr. Maatman is resident in the firm’s Chicago and New York offices. Mr. Maatman has a primary emphasis in his practice on defending employers sued in employment discrimination class actions, wage & hour collective actions, EEOC pattern or practice lawsuits, and civil rights/denial of access class actions brought in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Mr. Maatman also pioneered the process of conducting employment practices audits to assist employers in structuring effective and practical personnel policies and protocols. These audits are designed to minimize the incidence of employment-related class action litigation and to maximize management discretion and workplace productivity. Mr. Maatman’s work in this area has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine.
Mr. Maatman represents several leading employment practices liability insurance (“EPLI”) carriers and defends their employer insureds in class actions throughout the United States. He has also developed EPLI risk management programs for these carriers to assist their employer insureds in reducing and minimizing class actions. Mr. Maatman created an interactive web-enabled tutorial for the largest EPLI carrier in the U.S., which provides Internet training for management personnel on compliance with employment laws. Business Insurance Magazine selected the training tutorial for its “Best of the Web” Award for risk management in both 2001 and 2002.
Among his various cases, Mr. Maatman successfully defended one of the largest age discrimination collective actions ever brought in Illinois, as well as the first sexual harassment class action brought by a State Attorney General in the United States. Further, he served as lead defense counsel in one of the largest EEOC pattern or practice actions ever prosecuted by the U.S. Government. Mr. Maatman has also defended the governments of France, India, and Spain in lawsuits brought in U.S. courts over their employment of American workers.
Mr. Maatman is often consulted by major news organizations for his views on significant court rulings in class action cases. He has served as a legal commentator on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), National Public Radio (NPR), MSNBC, and USA Talk Radio, and his comments have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Business Insurance, USA Today, Fortune, and Forbes. Mr. Maatman also writes and lectures extensively on employment discrimination and labor law topics. He has authored six books on employment law topics, and has spoken to employer groups throughout the United States, as well as in Asia, Europe, Canada, and Mexico. Mr. Maatman is a Fellow of the American College of Labor & Employment Lawyers. Based on international surveys of business executives and corporate counsel, Euromoney selected Mr. Maatman as one of the leading employment lawyers in the world in 1999 to 2013. The International Bar Association selected Mr. Maatman as one of the world’s best employment lawyers in 2004 to 2010. Chambers selected him as one of the leading class action defense lawyers in its 2006 to 2013 rankings of U.S. lawyers. In addition, Corporate Counsel Magazine selected him as one of the leading employment lawyers in the United States in the Who’s Who International Guide To Business Lawyers in 2004 to 2013.
