Michele Whitham is both the former Co-Managing Partner of Foley Hoag LLP and a widely respected employment law practitioner, recognized for her accomplishments by Chambers USA and Massachusetts SuperLawyers. Among her particular specialties is workplace and corporate data security and privacy.
Michele represents employers in every aspect of the employment relationship, including designing cutting-edge employment policies and practices, advising with regard to workplace issues as they arise, and resolving employment disputes using an array of dispute resolution modalities. She also advises global businesses in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia/Pacific on strategic human resource issues.
Employers rely on Michele for representation in federal and state courts, administrative fora, and ADR proceedings. She has been lead counsel in employment law cases throughout Massachusetts, New England, and more than a dozen states nationwide. She has particular strength in litigating claims involving computer fraud and abuse by employees (including electronic theft of proprietary information and other system incursions), defending complex EEO, ERISA, and wage and hour claims (including class actions), enforcing non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, and resolving executive compensation disputes. In addition to her trial practice, Michele has over 25 years of ADR experience, having frequently acted as lead negotiator in direct and facilitated dispute resolution sessions, facilitated the resolution of a variety of multi-party disputes, and designed corporate dispute resolution mechanisms.
Her success at litigation and dispute resolution gives Michele a practical perspective on structuring policies and procedures that seek to minimize problems in the workplace and facilitate effective resolution if problems arise. She works with clients to audit employment policies, practices and procedures, guides layoffs and restructurings (with a focus on designing statistical workforce monitoring programs), and negotiates employment offers and contracts, severance agreements and intellectual property agreements.
Based on her experience in litigating and advising on data theft, systems breach and cyber-attack cases dating back to 2005, Michele founded and is a co-chair of Foley Hoag's Security and Privacy Practice Group. She conducts internal investigations of alleged employee misconduct and protects companies from internal and external threats to computer systems and proprietary information. Her work reflects advanced knowledge of computer forensic discovery and recovery techniques, and she has successfully litigated to interrupt cyber-attacks and identify cyber-attackers. Her knowledge of data privacy and security law is extensive.
2011 Highlights
· Speaker, "Anatomy of Data Breaches: The Technology of How They Happen and the Legal Response," Applied Science and the Law: 21st Century Technology in the Courts, presented by the National Foundation for Judicial Excellence (July 2011)
· Senior Reviewer for "Race, Ethnicity and National Origin Discrimination Update" Chapter of 2011 MCLE's MA Employment Law Update
· Speaker, 2011 Labor Law Seminar, "Challenges and Perils in the Electronic Workplace"
Bars And Court Admissions
· Massachusetts
· U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
· U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
· U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Representative Experience The following is a brief summary of Michele's experience and accomplishments:
· Founder and co-chair of the Security and Privacy practice group
· Advises internationally on strategic HR planning for global businesses (including in Canada, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Sweden, Uganda and the United Kingdom)
· Manages Foley Hoag's relationship with Lex Mundi, a leading international association of independent law firms
· Represents organizations in the technology, financial and education sectors
· Facilitates workforce management for international companies inbound to and outbound from the US
· Practices in Massachusetts, New England and nationally (having litigated cases and advised on matters in, for example, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia)
Professional / Civic Involvement
· Pro Bono Counsel, MITRE Advanced Cyber Security Center, Member of Steering and Policy Committees
· American Bar Association, Member
· Boston Bar Association Society of Fellows, Member
· Massachusetts Bar Association, Member
· Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, Member
· Unified Court System of the State of New York, served for many years as Senior Trainer for the Community Dispute Resolution Program
· Active in community fund raising efforts, including co-chairing various fundraising events for public service organizations
· Commonwealth of Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board ("PRIM"), Member of Audit and Administration and Compensation Committees since 2011
· International/Massachusetts Women's Forum, selected to membership in 2005, named Treasurer in 2007 and Vice Chair in 2010
· Wentworth Institute of Technology, Trustee since 2010, Member of Audit and Trusteeship Committees
· Goddard College, Trustee 2003-2011, Member of Executive, Finance and Personnel, and Institutional Advancement Committees
· President's Counsel of Cornell Women, elected to four-year term (July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2010)
· Shelter, Inc., President, 2003 and 2004; Executive Committee, 2002 to present; Director since 1999 (organization providing permanent housing for homeless families)
Speeches and Conferences
· Frequent speaker at employment law and privacy and security law seminars
· Regularly conducts trainings for clients on employment and privacy and security law subjects
· Regular contributor on employment law subjects
· Speaker at law firm management conferences nationally and internationally, including at Lex Mundi Managing Partners Conferences
Publications
An overview of fifteen dueling federal bills seeking to regulate data privacy and cyber security in the United States, (September 2011)
Supplemental materials prepared for National Judicial Conference, (July 2011)
Honors/Awards
Ranked by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as one of Massachusetts' leading employment lawyers (2006 - 2011)
Massachusetts Super Lawyers and New England Super Lawyers (2004, 2006-2011) (top 5% of attorneys in Massachusetts)
Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition (2008-2011)
Super Lawyers Business Edition (2011)
Martindale-Hubbell AV Peer Rating since 2005 (highest ranking of professional excellence, skill and integrity)
Selected to Inaugural 2011 Edition of Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers
Nominated for 2011 Mentor of the Year by Massachusetts Bar Association and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly for launching inaugural Women Bar Association's Women's Leadership Initiative
Selected as one of Boston's Top 10 Corporate Lawyers, Women's Business Boston, January 2010
Recipient of the Boston Chamber of Commerce's Pinnacle Award for Achievement in the Professions, 2007
Selected as one of Boston's Top 10 Bosses, Women's Business Boston, May 2006
Recipient of the William Lloyd Garrison Partner in Abolitionism Award, presented in 2004 by the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance "for your resolute endurance in creatively serving homeless people"
Subject in 1999 of a United States Department of Justice film that profiled, among others, a case in which she assisted the Commonwealth's United States Attorney achieve the first conviction since the Civil War of a violator of the anti-slavery amendment to the United States Constitution and won for the victim in a companion civil suit hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime compensation
Subject of Common Fire: Lives of Commitment in a Complex World (Beacon Press, 1996), which explores how individuals sustain a commitment to the common good