Overview

Michele Coyne is the Chair of KM&M’s Employment Law Practice Group, which exclusively represents employers in all federal, state, and local employment law matters. Her personal focus includes discrimination claims, wage and hour and leave issues, reductions in force, employment policies and procedures, and performance and disciplinary issues, with a particular emphasis on representing not-for-profit organizations.

In addition to her advisory work, Michele is frequently retained to conduct objective workplace investigations and provides extensive training for employees, managers, Human Resource professionals and other attorneys on employment law matters. She also litigates the full range of employment matters in federal and state courts and appears before administrative agencies.

Michele graduated from Villanova University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received her undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, in English and Political Science. She earned her law degree from New York University, where she served as Articles Editor of the New York University Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She is also a qualified solicitor in the Republic of Ireland.

After law school, Michele joined the labor and employment law group at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City where she spent four years representing multinational, national and local employers in the full range of labor and employment law matters.

Shen then moved in-house to Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. (later Vivendi Universal). As Assistant Counsel, Labor and Employment, she was responsible for labor, employment and immigration matters worldwide for the Company's corporate functions, and its entertainment and distilled spirits businesses.

Today, Michele is a member of the Advisory Board of the NYU Center for Labor and Employment Law and is a frequent speaker on employment law issues.

Education

  • J.D., magna cum laude, New York University
  • B.A., summa cum laude, Villanova University