CHICAGO, February 5, 2020: In a move that further strengthens the firm’s premier full-service labor and employment practice, Morgan Lewis has added two partners from Sidley Austin. Ami Wynne, who led Sidley’s global labor and employment practice and advises companies on a broad range of employment counseling and litigation issues, including those relating to the #MeToo movement, and employment litigator Jonathan Lotsoff, who has deep experience in class action, trade secret, and noncompetition litigation, have joined Morgan Lewis as partners resident in Chicago.
“Comprehensive and business-oriented labor and employment law advice is critical to our global and US corporate clients, each of whom deals with talent challenges. We are excited to welcome such world-class lawyers to help our clients navigate these issues and best serve their business goals,” said Firm Chair Jami McKeon. “Just as important, Ami and Jonathan have shown a commitment to creating safe, respectful, and inclusive workplaces, both for our clients and within our firm.”
Ami, who was named a 2019 Notable Gen X Leader in Law and a 2018 Notable Minority Lawyer by Crain’s Chicago Business, represents clients on employment litigation and counseling matters. A major part of her practice centers on conducting sensitive internal investigations, including at the board and C-suite levels, regarding allegations of discrimination, harassment, conflict of interest, and other misconduct. She negotiates complex executive separations, advises on human resources initiatives, and counsels on executive compensation and corporate transactions work. Ami is a champion for diversity and inclusion who served as a longtime member of Sidley’s diversity committee and a leader in its recruiting and associate mentoring initiatives.
Jonathan litigates complex employment matters, including class and collective actions at the trial and appellate levels. He has significant experience counseling and litigating with respect to restrictive covenant and business tort matters, including noncompetition and unfair business practices, trade secret misappropriation, and breach of fiduciary duty claims. He also counsels clients on transactional issues in the full array of labor and employment matters. Jonathan is dedicated to pro bono and civic work, including as a founding board member of Soaring Eagle Academy, a nonprofit school in Illinois that serves autistic-spectrum children.
At Morgan Lewis, Ami and Jonathan are reunited with partners Doug Hart, Jennifer Zargarof, and Max Fischer, who joined the firm in Los Angeles in February 2019 from Sidley Austin. Morgan Lewis’s 300-lawyer labor and employment practice was named Employment Practice of the Year by Law360 in 2019, and is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers USA and in Tier 1 by The Legal 500 US.
“We are thrilled that Ami and Jonathan have decided to join our team and will be reunited with their former partners, with whom they worked closely in the past,” said Grace Speights, leader of Morgan Lewis’s global labor and employment practice. “Their respective and intertwined practices present significant opportunities for even greater collaboration among our lawyers on the local and national levels, all to our clients’ advantage.”
Morgan Lewis’s Chicago office has grown to around 100 lawyers since it first opened in 2003 with nine. Last year, the global law firm signed a lease for 86,000 square feet over three floors in the new tower at 110 North Wacker Drive on the Chicago River. The firm expects to move in 2021.