Catherine Seidelman
Catherine Seidelman is an experienced employment attorney who focuses her practice on wage and hour class and collective actions and occupational safety and health matters, including OSHA safety and health enforcement and whistleblower and retaliation matters. She also advises and represents employers on leave and accommodation issues and employment litigation matters. Drawing on more than a decade of federal government experience, including senior roles with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and service with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Catherine brings a practical understanding of how federal labor and employment agencies investigate, enforce and litigate workplace laws.
Catherine has particular experience in matters involving the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). She counsels employers on workplace safety compliance and represents them in OSHA investigations, inspections, complaints and enforcement matters, including those arising from serious workplace incidents and fatalities. She also advises and represents employers in OSHA whistleblower and retaliation matters and closely monitors regulatory and enforcement developments affecting workplace safety. Most recently, she co-authored a September 2026 Littler publication on OSHA guidance regarding workplace preparedness for opioid overdose emergencies, including considerations for employers evaluating naloxone and other opioid-reversal measures in the workplace.
Catherine also regularly defends employers in wage and hour class and collective actions involving a range of compensation and pay practice issues. Her experience includes matters involving alleged unpaid wages and other wage and hour violations, as well as counseling employers on pay practices and strategies to mitigate potential class-wide exposure. She brings both a litigation and compliance perspective to these matters, helping employers address active disputes while identifying and managing wage and hour risks before they develop into broader claims.
Beyond these core areas of her practice, Catherine advises and represents employers in employment litigation and administrative charges, discrimination matters, wage and hour investigations, compensation and pay practices, employee policies, and day-to-day employment counseling. She works with employers across diverse industries, including healthcare and higher education, manufacturing, construction, transportation and logistics, environmental and waste services, retail, insurance and professional services, energy, technology, and consumer-facing businesses.
Prior to joining Littler, Catherine served as a senior attorney in the DOL’s Office of the Solicitor, Division of Occupational Safety and Health, where she focused exclusively on OSHA matters. In that role, she negotiated corporate-wide settlement agreements, reviewed significant enforcement cases, assisted OSHA with rulemaking, and served as a coordinator for OSHA whistleblower matters. Earlier, as a senior trial attorney in the DOL’s Chicago Regional Solicitor’s Office, she litigated OSHA, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) cases. She also represented management officials in employment discrimination matters before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and successfully defended the DOL in a grievance arbitration. Catherine served as the office’s FMLA coordinator, OSHA warrant coordinator, and coordinator for OSHA partnerships and alliances, and frequently instructed OSHA compliance officers and supervisors at OSHA’s Training Institute.
Before joining the DOL, Catherine was a field attorney with the NLRB in Regions 13 and 18. She litigated unfair labor practice cases, including serving as first chair in several trials, oversaw union elections, and served as a hearing officer in representation proceedings.
