A seal assembly for a rotary machine is provided. The seal assembly includes multiple sealing device segments disposed intermediate to a stationary housing and a rotor. Each of the segments includes at least one plate and a sealing element. The seal assembly also includes multiple inter-segment gaps formed between the multiple sealing device segments. Further, for each pair of adjacent sealing device segments, at least one pair of adjacent plates includes one plate overlapping another plate at an inter-segment gap.