Michelle J. LeBeau

Michelle J. LeBeau is of counsel in the Detroit, Michigan, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Her practice focuses on representing employers in complex workplace litigation, class actions, sensitive and C-suite investigations as well as in designing and implementing compliance-related strategic initiatives for corporate clients.

Michelle is a forward-thinking, strategic litigator with over twenty-five years of problem-solving capability gained by time spent both in-house and with leading international law firms. She brings sophisticated experience in all aspects of compliance, employment law and human resources restructuring to bear for the benefit of the firm’s clients. The experience she has garnered over the course of her career have allowed Michelle to develop a unique blend of sophisticated legal knowledge, experience with corporate strategy and business minded acumen which she brings to bear across the following areas of practice:

Litigation: As lead trial counsel in litigated matters, Michelle has represented employers in all aspects of employment litigation in state and federal courts, before administrative agencies and in arbitration proceedings, including litigation strategy, e/traditional discovery, witness preparation, depositions, motion practice, case evaluation, mediation, settlement negotiations, trial preparation, jury trials and appeals as well as reporting to C-Suite executives for both complex and simple employment cases.

Class Actions: She has acted as lead strategic counsel in class and collective actions both in Michigan and across the nation, primarily on wage and hour related issues. Michelle has also put her class action experience to use as lead strategic in-house counsel for Fortune 500 companies in in-house roles aimed at reining in and managing the class action dockets, problem solving the cases and designing and implementing solutions to ensure the company was no longer a target for class action litigation.

Compliance Programs, Reorganizations, Restructures and RIFs: Michelle brings a deep and broad subject matter savvy to the firm relating to corporate reorganization, realignment and reductions-in-force. This acumen includes providing strategic advice in designing “to be” organizational structures, assisting organizations in selecting criteria for new roles and designing defensible, business-oriented selection methodologies for reorganizations and necessary workforce reductions. She has also assisted clients in developing compliance programs from the ground up, ensuring these programs mitigate risk while remaining business friendly, executable, and tuned in to the business needs and abilities of the specific clients for which they were tailored. In this capacity, Michelle has also empowered our clients to develop and implement workforce integration plans to achieve cost savings and streamline operations while minimizing corporate risk.

Training: As a skilled and highly rated trainer, Michelle has developed and provided training to a myriad of Fortune 500 and other employers across the country on all aspects of employment law. She delivers training in a fresh and relatable way, bringing an easy-going style to create an active learning environment coupled with real life examples to bring home the lessons to be learned. Training is delivered in an interactive format using a variety of case studies, quizzes and Q&A to explain the material in a way that easily and effectively retained by participants.

Before joining Jackson Lewis, Michelle spent six years in a lead role as in-house counsel with an international staffing agency and as general counsel for a tech company. Before that, she was a member of the International Management Committee of a leading Labor & Employment law firm where she was responsible for all aspects of Michigan operations including growth strategy, market positioning, P&L, recruiting, workload allocation, and performance management.  Responsibilities for a multi-million-dollar office were in addition to a full caseload as lead counsel.