Kristin E. Michaels

Partner & Chair

Kristin is chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment practice group and focuses her practice on all aspects of labor and employment law. She advises and represents clients in labor relations, employment litigation, employment counseling, and the labor law aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Kristin has particularly deep experience in traditional labor law, where she has handled numerous unfair labor practice cases, strikes and injunctions, collective bargaining negotiations, organizing drives, representation cases and hearings, Section 301 litigation, and arbitrations, helping clients navigate complex labor matters with practical, business‑focused guidance.

Kristin has been the chief spokesperson in more than fifty collective bargaining negotiations, all of which resulted in successful collective bargaining agreements. She has successfully handled issues in arbitration or before the NLRB as varied as scope of recognition, outsourcing, transfer of work, impasse and implementation upon impasse, reductions in force, accretion, and unilateral changes in terms and conditions of employment, among others. Along with a colleague, Kristin handled one of the largest strikes in U.S. history, successfully overturning the NLRB’s finding of an unfair labor practice strike.

As a key member of the firm’s Hospitality & Leisure industry group, in particular, Kristin advises clients on their exposure and subsequent preparation for potential union representation tactics and the impact of the NLRB on the hotel industry.

Regarding employment litigation, she has handled hundreds of cases involving claims of harassment and discrimination, wage and hour violations, and breaches of restrictive covenants. She has experience litigating cases involving the gamut of labor and employment issues, from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act through the Fair Labor Standards Act, and also encompassing assorted state and federal statutes.

She also routinely provides legal counsel with respect to company investigations of claims of harassment and discrimination.

Clients nationwide have come from a wide range of industries, including media, health care, hospitality, technology, manufacturing, staffing, telecommunications, retail and utilities. Her clients rely on her ability to solve problems and develop strategies to achieve their business objectives.

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law (J.D., 1991)

Marquette University (B.A., 1988) magna cum laude