Michelle Hartmann is a partner in Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP’s Complex Commercial Litigation and Employment Litigation practice groups. Ms. Hartmann’s practice covers all aspects of complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts throughout the country, with a particular emphasis on class action and multidistrict litigation, restrictive covenant and trade secrets litigation, and conducting internal investigations. In addition to having extensive experience in litigating class action and multidistrict litigation throughout the country, Ms. Hartmann has litigated employment discrimination matters relating to race, sex, age, military service, and pay. She achieves outstanding results for her clients at every stage of the litigation process and does so by developing creative and cost-effective strategies aimed at client-driven resolution.
Ms. Hartmann has served as counsel in a number of high profile cases, including, most recently, representing a major airline in two related antitrust matters alleging conspiracies by global distribution systems; a putative representative action against a large restaurant chain which alleged misconduct related to gaming statutes; three related actions against an insurance broker which alleged improper raiding and conspiracy to violate restrictive covenants; derivative lawsuits against a large retail jeweler which alleged violations of federal securities laws; and numerous related actions pending in the Stanford MDL in the Northern District of Texas against a publicly-traded insurance broker which alleged violations of the Texas securities act.
Ms. Hartmann graduated first in her class at Southern Methodist University School of Law, where she served as the comment and notes editor for the SMU Law Review. She received awards and further scholarship for being named Outstanding 1L, and was selected to become a member of the Society of the Barristers (honorary society), where she later became co-head of the society. 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 is active in the community—both in local professional organizations and in philanthropic efforts. She has been an Associate in the Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham American Inn of Court and currently is a Barrister in the Judge Mac Taylor American Inn of Court. She is the Pro Bono Partner for the Dallas office, is a member of the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, has served on the board of the Dallas Women Lawyer’s Association for the past four years, currently is the President of the Dallas Women Lawyer’s Association, is a Lifetime Corps Member of Teach for America (an organization in which she formerly taught high school biology as a Teach for America Corps teacher), volunteers as a child advocate with the Court Appointed Special Advocates, and has been selected as a Texas Rising Star by the Texas Lawyer for several years (2008-2011). Ms. Hartmann also is active with the Dance Guild at Booker T. Washington School of the Arts, where her daughter attends high school.