Michelle Hartmann is a partner in Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP’s Complex Commercial Litigation and Employment Litigation practice groups. Ms. Hartmann concentrates in all aspects of complex commercial and employment litigation, in state and federal courts throughout the country, with a particular emphasis on class action and multidistrict litigation, non-compete, trade secrets litigation, and internal investigations and workplace reviews. She has litigated employment discrimination matters relating to race, sex, age, military service, and pay, and has extensive experience in class actions, arbitration, and mediation. She also has overseen numerous internal investigations involving executive and workplace non-compliance and discrimination.
Before attending law school, Ms. Hartmann taught Biology in inner-city schools in Dallas and Houston with Teach for America. She attended law school on scholarship at Southern Methodist University and graduated in 2001, summa cum laude, with the highest grade distinction for her graduating class. In law school, she was comment editor for The SMU Law Review and was selected by the Barristers as the Outstanding 1L for the Class of 2001. Following law school, she served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Carolyn Dineen King, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and as a judicial law clerk to Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn, District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Ms. Hartmann has been an Associate in the Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham American Inn of Court and is currently a Barrister in the Judge Mac Taylor American Inn of Court. She is a member of the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, has served on the board of the Dallas Women Lawyer’s Association for the past three years, is a Lifetime Corps Member of Teach for America, and is a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer. Ms. Hartmann has also been selected as a Texas Rising Star by the Texas Lawyer for several years (2008-2011), and is a recipient of Dallas Business Journal's 40 Under Forty Award (2011).