Deborah R. Willig Named to City & State PA Labor Power 100 List

Willig, Williams & Davidson managing partner recognized as one of the most powerful professionals in the labor sector in Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA (October 2023) – Pennsylvania labor, employment and workers’ compensation law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson is pleased to announce that managing partner Deborah R. Willig has been named to City & State Pennsylvania’s Labor Power 100 list. This honor is bestowed on those deemed by the publication City & State Pennsylvania as the most influential professionals in the labor sector in Pennsylvania.

Noting that Willig was “the first woman ever to serve as Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association,” City & State Pennsylvania highlights her continued “groundbreaking achievements this year with the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession.” The publication also cites her work on “collective bargaining between Philadelphia’s government, school district and union workers” as worthy of inclusion alongside the state’s most prominent labor advocates.

A trailblazer in the Pennsylvania legal community, Willig has focused her career exclusively on labor and employment law. She advises and negotiates on behalf of labor unions whose members represent workers in such fields as education, public health, social services, emergency services, and the hospitality industry. Her notable accomplishments include working to secure the first-ever collective bargaining agreement for the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association and decades of leading collective bargaining negotiations on behalf of the unions who represent employees of the City of Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia.

In 2023, Willig received the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, which honors up to five women who have achieved professional excellence and paved the way for other women in the legal profession. Past honorees for this award include Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Professor Anita Hill, Judge Norma Shapiro, and Philadelphia attorney Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Liebenberg.

Willig led the way for women as leaders in the legal profession in the Philadelphia region; in 1992, she was elected the first female Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. She has been recognized for her work and advocacy with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Legal Intelligencer Lifetime Achievement Award, the Sandra Day O’Connor Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Philadelphia Business Journal Women of Distinction Award, the Labor Human Rights Award from the Jewish Labor Committee, and The Agent of Change Award from Women’s Way.

Willig also has been inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, one of the highest recognitions by a labor lawyer’s colleagues of sustained outstanding performance in the profession, exemplifying integrity, dedication, and excellence.

About Willig, Williams & Davidson – Willig, Williams & Davidson (www.wwdlaw.com) is one of the largest and most respected union-side labor law firms in the United States. The firm has offices in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Jenkintown Pa., as well as Haddonfield, N.J., and Chicago, Ill. Founded in 1979, Willig, Williams & Davidson focuses on representing labor unions, employee benefit funds and individual working people and their families on a variety of legal fronts, including national, regional and local contract negotiations; election and campaign finance; dispute resolution through mediation, arbitration and litigation; family law matters; benefits law design and compliance issues; discrimination, overtime and unpaid wages, and other employment matters; prepaid legal services for union members; social security disability; and workers’ compensation matters in Philadelphia and beyond. Workers inspire us.

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