Bill Schurgin is a partner of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. He is the Chair of the Chicago Labor and Employment Department and immediate past chair of the Firm’s Traditional Labor Practice Group. Mr. Schurgin is engaged in a broad-based labor and employment law practice and is involved in the representation of employers throughout the United States. His areas of practice include issues arising under federal labor laws, union representation, collective bargaining, corporate campaigns, wage and hour laws, labor disputes, independent contractor issues, disability discrimination laws, workplace harassment and employment discrimination laws.
Mr. Schurgin’s practice includes a strong emphasis on counseling clients on how to avoid litigation and providing strategic advice on how to adopt best practices in a challenging marketplace. In addition to day-to-day counseling, Mr. Schurgin has acted as outside corporate campaign counsel for clients involved in campaigns with the Teamsters, UNITE HERE and the Service Employees International Union.
As National Director of Training for the firm’s training subsidiary - Seyfarth Shaw at Work, Mr. Schurgin has developed and presented training programs to employers throughout the United States and the world. These training programs have dealt with a wide-range of issues including workplace harassment, wage and hour compliance, complying with Americans with Disabilities Act, positive employee relations, collective bargaining, union representation, and employment discrimination.
Mr. Schurgin works with a number of employer associations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and SHRM on cutting edge issues. In 2008-2009, Mr. Schurgin worked with other members of Seyfarth American’s With Disabilities Act team on behalf of the U.S. Chamber in negotiating the terms of the Americans With Disabilities Amendment Act of 2008 and submitting comments on behalf of SHRM to the EEOC’s proposed ADAAA Regulations in 2009.
Mr. Schurgin has given numerous speeches and papers on a variety of employment related topics, including presentations to the Society For Human Resource Management, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Conference Board, the National Employment Law Institute, the Southwestern Legal Foundation, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the American Health Lawyers Association. He has been honored as one of the top ten speakers at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Human Resource Management and has testified before Congress on behalf of the US Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Schurgin is Co-Editor of Guide to Employment Law Compliance published by Thompson (2012) and has published numerous articles and books on a wide range of labor and employment topics.
Mr. Schurgin is an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University College of Law and is past president of the Illinois Health Lawyers Association. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Thompson Fair Labor Standards Act Publication Series and of the CCH Healthcare Compliance Portfolio. Mr. Schurgin is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has been selected as a member of the 2014 Leading Lawyers Network, the 2014 Illinois Super Lawyers and the 2014 Best Lawyers in the U.S.
Mr. Schurgin is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. Using Lean Six Sigma and project management methodologies, our SeyfarthLean® approach delivers increased value to our clients at a time of increased market pressures and competitive demands. Seyfarth’s commitment to delivering legal services in a new way—with an emphasis on value and continuous improvement—has been praised by the Association of Corporate Counsel as being "five years ahead of every other AmLaw 200 firm."
