Alden J. Bianchi, Esq.
Counsel, McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Bianchi is an experienced employee benefits and executive compensation lawyer based in the Boston office of McDermott Will & Emery LLP. Â He regularly advises corporate, not-for-profit, governmental, and individual clients on a broad range of executive compensation and employee benefits matters, including qualified and nonqualified retirement plans and health and welfare plans. Bianchi has been recognized as a leading employee benefits and executive compensation attorney nationwide by organizations including Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, and Legal 500.
Lauren Briggerman, Esq.
Member, Miller & Chevalier Chartered
Briggerman focuses her practice on white collar defense in criminal and civil matters. She represents corporations and executives in government and internal investigations as well as related litigation, including in the areas of criminal antitrust, money laundering, bank fraud, and government contracts fraud. In particular, she has developed expertise in global cartel investigations. Briggerman is co-founder of the Women’s Antitrust Forum, a Washington, DC-based organization that brings together women antitrust practitioners for professional development purposes. She is also vice chair of the American Bar Association’s Compliance & Ethics Committee for the Antitrust Law Section and is an active member of the ABA Cartel and Criminal Practice Committee and the Women’s White Collar Defense Association.
Lauren A. Champaign, Esq.
Senior Counsel, Foley & Lardner LLP
Champaign is a senior counsel and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, where her practice includes commercial litigation and counseling clients in the areas of securities litigation, product liability defense, antitrust, and consumer finance matters. She represents clients on a broad range of matters, including enforcement actions before state and federal regulatory agencies as well as in complex, multistate litigation—including large class actions based on allegations of anticompetitive conduct. Champaign’s professional recognitions include National Black Lawyers Top 100, recognizing the Top 100 black lawyers in the region (2022); Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch recognition for Antitrust Law (2021–2023); and 2022 DC Emerging Women Leaders in Private Practice by DCA Live Organization (2022).
Pamela Devata, Esq.
Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Devata is a partner in the labor and employment practice group of the law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP. She specializes in all aspects of employment defense, including counseling, training, and litigation. She also has extensive experience with employment litigation in administrative agencies, as well as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and state laws affecting background screening. Devata counsels both employers and providers (resellers and consumer reporting agencies) on compliance requirements under the FCRA and related state laws and has been involved in litigation regarding these issues.
Benjamin M. Ebbink, Esq.
Partner, Fisher & Phillips LLP
Ebbink is a partner in the Sacramento office of Fisher & Phillips LLP and is a legislative advocate and principal of FP Advocacy LLC. With two decades of experience in labor and employment law and in assisting the development of California labor law and regulations, he focuses on legislation introduced at the federal, state, and local levels. For nearly 15 years, Ebbink served as chief consultant to the California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, where he was the primary policy expert on labor and employment matters for the California State Assembly. He played a key role in virtually every major labor and employment issue to come before the legislature during his tenure, and personally drafted hundreds of legislative proposals. During his service in the legislature, Ebbink earned a reputation for his integrity, his ability to work with diverse stakeholders on all sides, and his skill as a problem-solver.
Lia Elliott, Esq.
Co-Managing Partner, Staffing GC
Elliott is an attorney and c-suite advisor with more than 20 years of boots-on-the-ground executive and legal experience in the workforce solutions and staffing industry. She is solutions-focused and works with clients to achieve business objectives while aligning legal compliance within risk tolerance and budget. An accomplished executive and attorney, Elliott’s diverse experience in both the practice of law and executive management offers unique value-add legal solutions to her clients.
Prior to launching Staffing GC, Elliott served for 15 years as general counsel to Elwood Staffing, where she led legal strategy, compliance, litigation management, and department operations and implemented enterprise-wide systems, solutions, procedures, and programs to protect profit and reduce risk. She also served on the executive committee and helped grow and scale Elwood Staffing from a $160 million company to a nearly $1 billion enterprise with more than 250 service locations and  more than 130,000 contingent employees assigned across more than 6,000 diverse client facilities with 1,000 internal corporate employees.
David Fuller, Esq.
Counsel, McDermott Will & Emery
Fuller focuses his practice on matters that include employee fringe benefits, independent contractor/employee classification, payroll taxes, information reporting, supplemental unemployment compensation benefits, and the contingent workforce (outsourcing, PEOs, and employee leasing). His unique practice includes tax litigation on a wide range of significant FICA and tax refund matters. A former manager of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service employment tax/fringe benefits branch, Fuller also has extensive experience in employment tax, employee-independent contractor, and fringe benefits planning strategies, as well as handling tax controversy matters with IRS Exam and IRS Appeals. Fuller was named to the 2023 list of Best Lawyers in America, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law.
Michael R. Gotzler, Esq.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson PC
Gotzler represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment matters, including labor management relations. His practice includes employment litigation, employee leave and accommodation issues, wage and hour compliance, noncompete agreements and other restrictive covenants, independent contractor issues, and labor relations. Gotzler is skilled in responding to claims and issues surrounding joint and co-employment, the use of third-party workers, independent contractors, and outsourced HR services. He has presented at national conferences, represented businesses at White House briefings, and participated on expert panels, and has been regularly interviewed and quoted as a result. Gotzler has also represented the staffing industry on a wide range of legal issues and legislative and regulatory matters. Prior to joining Littler, he was general counsel of an organization that provided temporary staffing, executive recruiting, HR consulting, and integrated HR services throughout the U.S. Gotzler partners with and provides legal counsel to employers of all sizes and industries throughout the U.S., from multinational Fortune 50 companies to startup companies looking to hire their first employee.
Geri L. Haight, Esq.
Member, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC
Haight is a member in Mintz’s employment, labor, and benefits practice focusing on employment litigation, counseling, and compliance, as well as intellectual property and trade secret matters. She leverages extensive experience as an in-house attorney and trial lawyer and with a broad range of business and employment issues to advise clients across a variety of industries, including food and beverage, consumer products, retail, and technology. Haight’s work primarily involves both litigation and counseling on a broad spectrum of employment issues, including trade secret and intellectual property protection, the enforcement of noncompetition and nondisclosure agreements, independent contractor and employee classification, internal investigations, and compliance matters. In addition to her practice, Haight chairs the steering committee of the Mintz Women’s Initiative, an affinity group dedicated to supporting and enriching the lives and careers of the firm’s female attorneys.
Christy S. Hawkins, Esq.
Partner, Akerman LLP
Hawkins focuses her practice on privacy, cybersecurity, and incident response. She advises clients on state, federal, and international data security and privacy issues, including compliance and risk management, and supports organizations of all sizes and in various market sectors. Hawkins conducts risk assessments and prepares key documentation to enhance and support privacy and cybersecurity programs of all sizes and maturity levels through the rapidly changing privacy and security landscapes in the U.S. and abroad.
Jason B. Klimpl, Esq.
Partner, Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP
Klimpl is a partner in the employment law group of Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP. In this capacity, he advises clients on a broad range of employment law matters, such as wage and hour compliance, health care, equal opportunity actions and policies, employment agreements and restrictive covenants, independent contractor and consulting issues, reductions in force, technology and privacy concerns, and other human resource counseling. He is general counsel of the New York Staffing Association, an ASA-affiliated chapter, and is heavily involved in legal and legislative efforts to support the staffing industry. He has written numerous employment law articles and is a contributing faculty member of both Lawline and the National Academy of Continuing Legal Education. Klimpl also is a member of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce speakers bureau and help desk. He was awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s “preeminent” peer review rating, named 2013–2022 New York Super Lawyer (Rising Star), and won the “Rising Star Attorney” category in New York Enterprise Report’s 2012 Best Attorneys and Accountants list.
Helen L. Konrad, Esq.
Director, McCandlish Holton PC
Konrad is director in the immigration practice group of the law firm McCandlish Holton PC, where she concentrates on work site compliance; defending employers in U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Special Counsel, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations; and employment-based and professional immigration. She has worked directly with the staffing industry for more than 25 years and has shared her extensive expertise with staffing professionals at Staffing World®, through American Staffing Association webinars, and at past ASA Staffing Law Conferences. Konrad has regularly been recognized as one of the best immigration lawyers in America and she is consistently one of the highest-rated speakers at ASA events.
Sarah Kroll-Rosenbaum, Esq.
Partner–Litigation, Akerman LLP
Sarah Kroll-Rosenbaum is a trusted strategic advisor to her clients, with whom she collaborates closely to design and execute litigation strategies through the lens of their business priorities. Her team assists clients in navigating novel areas of intersecting legal compliance. In recent years, she has led the defense of nearly two dozen temporary health care staffing companies in class, collective, and representative actions that sought to attack the industry’s business model. Kroll-Rosenbaum has argued extensively in California state and federal courts, including the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in federal courts across the country, and in arbitration.
Edward A. Lenz, Esq.
Senior Counsel, American Staffing Association
Lenz is senior counsel for the American Staffing Association and one of the nation’s leading authorities on the legal and policy aspects of staffing. He joined ASA in 1989 as the association’s first general counsel and later, as senior vice president for legal and public affairs, was the industry’s chief legal and legislative strategist. Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, Lenz has led the industry’s advocacy efforts before Congress and the administration regarding how the ACA uniquely affects staffing firms. Before joining ASA, he was vice president and assistant general counsel for regulatory affairs with Kelly Services and chairman of the ASA legislative committee. In addition to his ongoing leadership role with ASA, Lenz also serves as senior adviser for employment, labor, and benefits to the law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
Gerald L. Maatman Jr., Esq.
Chair, Workplace Class Action Group, Duane Morris
Maatman Jr., chair of Duane Morris’ Workplace Class Action group, has nearly four decades of experience practicing law and has defended some of the most significant bet-the-company cases ever filed against corporate America. He has represented companies, executive teams, and boards across the country in class action litigation, ranging in size from thousands to hundreds of thousands of claims by employees. Among his accomplishments, Maatman defended and defeated the largest systemic enforcement action ever brought in the history of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the first Attorney General prosecution of a Wall Street company for workplace discrimination andharassment, and the largest wage and hour class and collective actions ever brought in Florida and New York. Maatman pioneered the process of conducting employment-practices audits to assist employers in structuring effective and practical personnel policies and protocols.
Maatman has served as a legal commentator on PBS, NPR, MSNBC, CNBC, and U.S. talk radio, and his comments have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Business Insurance, USA Today, Fortune, and Forbes. He has authored six books on employment law topics and has spoken to employer groups throughout the U.S., as well as in Asia, Europe, Canada and Mexico. Maatman was a 2021 Law360 MVP for Employment Law, which is his sixth such honor from Law360 since 2013. That same year, he was inducted into the Legal 500 Hall of Fame. He also was selected by America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as one of the nation’s leading class action defense lawyers in its 2006 to 2022 rankings of U.S. lawyers.
Toby Malara, Esq.
VP, government relations, American Staffing Association
Malara is vice president of government relations for the American Staffing Association. He advises on all staffing-related legislation and regulation, including the Affordable Care Act, immigration/I-9, paid sick leave, sales tax, and per diem issues. He also directs the association’s political activities through its political action committee, StaffingPAC.
Evan M. Rosen, Esq.
Principal, Jackson Lewis PC
Rosen is a principal in the Atlanta office of Jackson Lewis PC. He is a labor and employment litigator and counselor who has been recognized nationally for his expertise by The Best Lawyers in America for the past six years in the practice areas of employment law, management and litigation, and labor and employment. Rosen specializes in the staffing industry and advises staffing companies throughout the country. He served on the board of directors for the Georgia Staffing Association for the past 10 years, and serves as a founding and leading member of Jackson Lewis’ staffing and independent workforce practice group. Rosen works with staffing companies nationwide on a variety of issues, including defending companies against discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage hour, breach of contract, Fair Credit Reporting Act, noncompete, and wrongful termination administrative charges and lawsuits; counseling companies on a wide range of employment policies and practices; and drafting agreements and policies such as employment agreements, separation agreements, employee handbooks, independent contractor agreements, and other employment policies.
Brittany Sakata, Esq.
General Counsel, American Staffing Association
Sakata is an experienced labor and employment attorney with more than 11 years of experience litigating matters on behalf of individuals and employers. She advises American Staffing Association members on labor and employment law and policy issues, including equal employment opportunity, wage and hour, immigration/I-9, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and National Labor Relations Board issues.
Robert Sanders, Esq.
Partner, Taylor English Duma LLP
Sanders is a partner at Taylor English Duma LLP, where he helps companies across the country understand legal risks and strategies to avoid claims—empowering them to make confident, business-minded employment decisions. He routinely counsels employers on best practices in handling employee discipline and discharge, leave and accommodation, discrimination and harassment, wage and hour, worker safety, noncompete, and other issues.
Anthony Sbardellati, Esq.
Partner, Akerman LLP
Sbardellati focuses his practice on defending class action, FLSA collective, and PAGA lawsuits, while also regularly advising clients on compliance with wage, hour, and related laws and regulations. Sbardellati’s practice is particularly focused on the staffing industry, which has given him broad exposure to the multitude of unique issues facing staffing companies on a daily basis. He utilizes that knowledge and expertise to develop strategies for effectively defending against pending and threatened claims, and to assist his clients with operationalizing best practices to avoid future suits.
Donald W. Schroeder, Esq.
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Schroeder is a partner and labor and employment attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP. He has extensive trial experience in both state and federal courts, where he focuses on representing Fortune 500 clients on matters including restrictive covenant litigation, wage and hour class actions, and single-plaintiff discrimination cases. Schroeder’s trial experience includes a number of federal and state court jury trials involving claims under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Massachusetts antidiscrimination statute. Additionally, Schroeder regularly handles traditional labor matters (focusing on the management side) for clients, including unfair labor practice proceedings, union elections, mass picketing, labor arbitrations, and collective bargaining negotiations.
Montaye Sigmon, Esq.
Partner, Akerman LLP
Sigmon provides legal advice concerning a range of regulatory compliance and commercial contracts matters. Sigmon’s expertise spans a variety of tax and employee benefits-related laws, privacy and data security requirements, and state-level staffing industry regulations. She helps clients evaluate their compliance practices, identify potential gaps, and implement pragmatic solutions customized for their specific business.