‘I Think Being on the Union Side in Labor Relations as Being on the Side of the Angels’

Managing partner Deborah R. Willig has spent nearly five decades fighting for the marginalized and excluded, whether as a labor lawyer advocating for workers to be treated with dignity and fairness or as a trailblazer paving the way for other women in the legal profession. In 2023, Willig received the American Bar Association’s prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award in recognition of her groundbreaking career, and she recently spoke with The Legal Intelligencer about the work she loves the most.

Willig describes her efforts to make the profession easier to navigate for other women. “Our firm was probably one if not the first to institute a paid maternity leave, a lengthy paid maternity leave, back in the early ‘80s,” she said. “We have recognized part-time employment for decades, so that women, who are still primary caregivers in a household, can work part-time without any negative effect on partnership track or compensation. It’s one of the reasons we’re one of the largest women-owned firms in the United States.”

Willig blazed trails as the first woman Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association by giving women more leadership opportunities. “Never in the history of the Bar had more than 10% of the committee chairs been women and [when I was Chancellor] it was in excess of 50% or 60%. I think that demonstrated to other women who aspire to that role that it could and should be done.”

Looking back on her career, Willig is most proud of the firm she has built. “We are a family-friendly, part-time-friendly, diverse and inclusive firm and I think being on the union side in labor relations as being on the side of the angels.”

She is also proud of the historic collective bargaining agreements she has negotiated over the course of her career. “[W]hether you’re talking about elite athletes or people who work at a big cultural institution, they faced the same gender discrimination in salary, they faced unaffordable health care, they faced sexual harassment issues and worse. We were able to address all those in the contracts.”

With no plans to retire, Willig looks forward to the future for herself and the firm.

“[O]ur newer partners and colleagues are ready to move forward with our good work and I’m very, very proud of that.”

Read the full article online: Deborah Willig, Tapped for ABA Award, Revisits Her Impact on Phila. Legal Community (Subscription is required.)