Kristin G.McGurn

Partner

Labor & Employment

kmcgurn@seyfarth.com

Boston

+1 (617) 946-4858

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Kristin guides clients to mitigate risk and drive business success while continuously improving employee engagement. She passionately and expertly defends her clients when unavoidable litigation ensues.

More About Kristin

A hallmark of a thriving business is its dedication to attracting, retaining, and nurturing the talent most equipped to lead the company to continued, enhanced success. Even employers committed to improving compliance face high-profile, resource-sapping litigation. Kristin's practical, business-centric approach to risk mitigation positions clients perfectly to weather litigation. Her collaborative, decisive style capably leads clients to maintain healthy workforce culture, strategically guiding them throughout the employment life cycle—from onboarding through separation.

Kristin has a reputation for earning winning results through smart practice and dedication. She guides clients to innovative contractual terms and cutting-edge policies to enhance employee relations and contain risk. Kristin has handled scores of complex class and collective actions, and successfully navigated dozens of agency litigations and investigations, focusing in wage-and-hour compliance and class actions.

Kristin is an experienced litigator, whose knowledge spans federal employment law, analogous state common law, and statutory claims, including Title VII, ADEA, FMLA, ADA, FLSA, civil and equal rights, fair employment practices, and wage payment claims. She counsels and defends scores of employers in many business sectors, with an emphasis on matters affecting the health care and pharmaceutical industries, and experience in financial services, tech, retail, and hospitality industries.

Kristin assists nonprofit and for-profit businesses to negotiate and draft employment policies, contracts and covenants. She prosecutes and defends all manner of employment-related disputes, including agency enforcement actions and discrimination, harassment and retaliation, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, noncompetition, nonsolicitation, unfair competition, and whistleblower claims. Her experience also includes defending ERISA claims in court and before the United States Department of Labor.

Kristin's many leadership roles, both inside and outside the firm, give her valuable insight that benefits her clients. For example:

  • As co-chair of Seyfarth's Health Care practice group, Kristin leads an interdisciplinary team of industry-focused experts from all departments of the firm who provide complete strategic solutions to health care ecosystem clients. Through her leadership and collaboration across the Health Care practice group, Kristin is uniquely able to see regulatory and trending industry matters affecting health care clients, bringing top-of-mind content to clients' attention, and bringing industry clients together to share best practices in facilitated, educational settings.
  • Kristin was named vice-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group for the American Health Lawyers Association. In this role, Kristin is entrusted to guide national experts, remaining on the forefront of industry trends and thought leadership.
  • As chair of the Boston office's Lawyer Development Committee, Kristin brings decades of experience in mentoring, coaching, and team-building. Handling difficult conversations and offering pointed feedback are strengths that she shares when counseling clients. She is responsible for pipeline, recruiting, development, diversity and inclusion efforts. This gives her a unique understanding of similar challenges facing clients.
  • Entrusted to serve as the Boston office's EEO coordinator, Kristin is responsible for internal complaint resolution and investigations—and is able to understand, first-hand, how clients feel when dealing with similar matters.
  • As a member of the ABA's College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Kristin has earned the admiration of the bar, the trust of her clients, and the respect of her adversaries.
  • Kristin uses the firm's unique suite of Seyfarth technology tools and innovative methods of service delivery to better support her clients. An early participant in Seyfarth's process mapping for arbitrations, wage-and-hour litigation and audits, and leave management, Kristin leverages the efficiencies this nitty-gritty, roll-up-your-sleeves experience to benefit her clients. She leverages SeyfarthLink to manage internal, cross-office teams and to seamlessly communicate with clients who entrust her with portfolios. She developed a technology-enabled questionnaire to assess the exempt classification of workers, from technology companies, to health care providers, to government contractors.

After years of practicing with Seyfarth colleagues, Kristin remains impressed by the generosity of Seyfarth's team of experts who selflessly share their historical experiences and knowledge. She is proud to lead attorneys from all offices of the global firm in delivering practical, timely, business-focused, sensible, total-solution advice to clients.

"I'm naturally attracted to the constantly evolving regulatory patchwork of national employment law compliance, and the human stories from which employment litigation is born."
  • JD, Northeastern University School of Law
  • BA, University of Connecticut
    English, Spanish, Women's Studies

    Magna cum laude
    Honors College
    Phi Beta Kappa Society

Certifications

  • Certified Health Care Institute (HCI) professional, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (2022)
  • Massachusetts
  • US Court of Appeals, First Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
  • US District Court, District of Massachusetts

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