Spencer Fane Partner Sue Willman was featured in this month’s issue of KC Counselor as a recipient of the KCMBA’s prestigious Baron of the Boardroom award. This recognition is bestowed annually to Kansas City attorneys with distinguished careers in the area of corporate and business law. Willman’s nomination, submitted by fellow Spencer Fane Partner Nate Orr, outlined Willman’s rise to success both as a national expert in the field of preventative and proactive employment law and as a leader in the firm.
Willman’s career began as a human resources professional in Chicago where she worked for several years before eventually relocating and attending law school at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. After graduating, she served as an employment attorney and Chief Human Resources Officer for a local law firm and later as the Human Resources Division Counsel for Payless Cashway’s, Inc., a role which she held for seven years before transitioning to Spencer Fane in 1997.
In her nearly 20 years with the firm, Willman has inarguably made a lasting impression both in her practice group and beyond, Orr said. She was instrumental in building Spencer Fane’s employment practice into one of the strongest and most respected in the Midwest and has become a mentor to many individual attorneys, sharing her unique industry experience to better inform their practice. She is a co-moderator of the firm’s HR Peer Group, a program of educational seminars for corporate HR professionals, and a co-chair of the firm’s highly attended client seminars.
Outside of the office, Willman is frequently sought out for her industry expertise and has provided testimony to U.S. Congress committees and subcommittees and testified before the Department of Labor on a variety of topics. She regularly speaks and presents to various organizations and has earned a slew of accolades over the years for her notable work.
In keeping with tradition, the Baron of the Boardroom award will be presented at the KCMBA’s annual Bench and Bar Conference on May 14-16 in Branson, Mo. To read more of Willman’s story, or to learn more about the Baron of the Boardroom award, view the full KC Counselor story here.