Photo of Christopher J. DeGroff

Christopher is a partner in the Labor and Employment Department in the Firm’s Chicago office, with a practice largely focused on multi-plaintiff and class/collective actions. Mr. DeGroff’s class action experience spans the scope of employment law theories. Mr. DeGroff also has extensive experience litigating against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), both at the early charge stage and in large-scale EEOC pattern-and-practice litigation. Mr. DeGroff has developed innovative strategies for addressing wide-ranging governmental requests for information and has handled complex regional and national EEOC investigations, typially resulting in no action being taken against our clients at all. When the EEOC has resorted to litigation, Mr. DeGroff has been instrumental in defending our clients against these often high-profile systemic cases, working with any number of class action teams to achieve efficient and effective case resolution. Mr. DeGroff’s class experience also includes a significant understanding of emerging electronic discovery issues, and has conducted speeches and published articles on electronic discovery and other high-technology issues.

By Christopher DeGroff

In yet another case regarding discovery of social media content, Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado recently sanctioned the EEOC for its efforts to evade discovery of social media content in EEOC v. The Original Honeybaked Ham, No 11-CV-2560 (D. Colo. Feb. 27,

By Christopher DeGroff

After much anticipation, heated debate, and numerous invitations for public comment on the EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan, on February 20, 2013, the EEOC provided an update on its implementation of the Strategic Plan. Approved on December 18, 2012, the Strategic Plan will function as the blueprint for the Commission’s enforcement activity

By Christopher DeGroff

In a unique case, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania recently dismissed the EEOC’s allegations that the Defendant’s random drug and alcohol testing of probationary employees violated the ADA. The decision in EEOC v. United States Steel Corp., No. 10-CV-1283 (W.D. Pa. Feb. 20, 2013), is striking in

By Christopher DeGroff

As we blogged about here previously, in the EEOC’s first draft of its Strategic Enforcement Plan, the Commission telegraphed that it was increasingly focused on preventing, and when necessary, litigating workplace harassment and retaliation allegations. The EEOC’s warning was no bluff, for in 2012 the EEOC filed a significant amount of harassment

By Christopher DeGroff

We have been keeping our readers posted on the rapidly evolving developments concerning the EEOC’s agenda in 2013 and beyond. As we noted in past postings, the EEOC promised in its Strategic Enforcement Plan (“SEP”) that it would increasingly focus on preventing and, when necessary, litigating retaliation claims. The EEOC sharpened its

By Christopher DeGroff, Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Julie G. Yap

After much anticipation, heated debate, and numerous invitations for public comment, today the EEOC announced that it approved its Strategic Enforcement Plan for FY 2013-2016. As we previously reported, the EEOC’s SEP will function as the blueprint for the Commission’s

EEOC seal.pngBy: Christopher DeGroff, Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., and Julie G. Yap

Today the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published its long awaited FY 2012 Performance and Accountability Report. The Report was posted on-line at the EEOC’s website along with a press release. The EEOC’s fiscal year ends on September 30th each year, and