Deborah R. Willig Named to Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers

Willig, Williams & Davidson managing partner recognized among top attorneys fighting for workers’ rights

PHILADELPHIA (Sept. 30, 2025) – Pennsylvania labor, employment and workers’ compensation law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson is pleased to announce that managing partner Deborah R. Willig again has been named to the 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers guide. Attorneys featured in this guide are deemed by the publication Lawdragon as the most noteworthy advocates for civil rights and workers in the country.

Lawyers are selected by Lawdragon through extensive journalistic research and recommendations from peers in the industry. The selection process focuses on recent cases handled and victories and settlements won. Lawdragon reviews cutting-edge litigation as well as trends in civil rights and plaintiff employment law and highlights the lawyers to whom clients consistently turn for guidance in those.

“These lawyers are champions who stand tall and deliver justice to individuals who have lost their means to make a living, their freedom, their dignity. To have a job, a chance,” Lawdragon said in announcing the list, further noting that “these are the lawyers who call out and hold to account those whose callous, greedy or vicious actions deprive others of their right to work, to exist, to peaceably abide. To go to court and win the respect that’s been stolen.”

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 serving on the advisory committee for the Women’s National Basketball Players Association’s collective bargaining negotiations, working to secure the first-ever collective bargaining agreement for the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association, and decades of leading negotiations on behalf of the unions who represent employees of the City of Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia.

Willig led the way for women as leaders in the legal profession, advocacy that was honored in 2023 with the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession for her “groundbreaking career as a model for women in the legal profession.” Given annually, the award honors up to five women who have achieved professional excellence and paved the way for other women in the law – which is exactly what Willig has done. She was the first woman president of the Temple University Beasley School of Law Student Bar Association; the first woman chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association; and the first woman to manage what has grown into one of the largest women-owned law firms in the country.

She has been recognized 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.