Ann MarieZaletel

Ann Marie's extensive, broad-based employment litigation experience in federal and state courts, legal knowledge, and nearly two decades of experience advising employers provide her with a unique insight to the challenges that employers encounter as they strive to comply with a complex and constantly evolving set of employment laws across the US, particularly in California.

Ann Marie began her practice in employment law more than two decades ago. This experience provides her with a heightened understanding of the numerous and varied "real world" challenges that employers face on a day-to-day basis, and of the critical importance of identifying practical, legally sound solutions that meet her clients' business needs and effectively manage legal risk.

To enhance the services she provides to her clients, Ann Marie uses Seyfarth's unique suite of technology tools. For example, she has used both technology and process mapping to help clients develop and implement centralized leave of absence and disability accommodation management processes. These help eliminate redundancy and other inefficiencies, as well as improve consistency. Ann Marie has also used online employment counseling logs that track employment advice to help clients identify trends, compliance challenges, and training opportunities.

Ann Marie, who co-leads Seyfarth’s Workplace Crisis Response & Investigations practice, also spends a significant part of her practice conducting workplace investigations into allegations of serious misconduct against C-suite individuals and other high-level executives. She often is retained by boards of directors—or special committees of boards of directors—to investigate highly sensitive, complex, and/or impactful allegations, including but not limited to, allegations of employment discrimination, harassment, and illicit drug use. When Ann Marie is not conducting investigations, she frequently strategically guides clients through investigations and on their response to other crises, including providing legal counsel on company messaging and on post-investigation steps, such as discipline, training, and implementation of new policies and best practices.

Ann Marie enjoys working at Seyfarth because she gets to develop long-term relationships with clients and assist them with their employment law compliance initiatives across the US. She finds it especially rewarding to help clients avoid time-consuming and expensive employment litigation, reduce their legal exposure, and more effectively manage their legal risk.