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Bryan native is a workers' attorney

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Editor's note: March is Women's History Month. To celebrate this month, women of note from around the region are being profiled for their efforts each Sunday.

By LISA NICELY

nicely@crescent-news.com

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- When it comes to employee benefits questions, look no further than Sue Conway.

Conway, a Bryan native, is a partner at the Warner Norcross & Judd Attorneys at Law office in Grand Rapids, where she concentrates on employee benefits. She has been listed in the publication, Best Lawyers in America, and has also been named as one of the Top 50 Women Super Lawyers in Michigan.

Conway said she was extremely honored to receive those laurels.

"The Best Lawyers designation is especially significant to me because it results from the votes of my peers -- other lawyers in the profession whom I work with, and against," she said. "And I was thrilled (and humbled) to be selected as one of the 50 most influential women mainly because of the great company I am in -- an incredible group of west Michigan women who have made enormous contributions to their communities, charitable organizations, businesses and governments."

For more than 20 years, Conway has counseled businesses in the design and administration of various health, benefit and fringe plans for their employees. She also works to make sure companies are in compliance with COBRA and other employee benefit laws.

"I became involved in employee benefits law because of a need in that area of specialization at Warner Norcross & Judd, the law firm I joined in Grand Rapids right out of law school (and have been there ever since)," Conway said. "Employee benefits is a mixture of tax law and labor/employment-type law. I am fortunate to work with employers of all sizes -- from small physicians' practices to Fortune 100 companies.

"The challenge for all our employer clients today is the high cost of employee health insurance, particularly during this time of national financial crisis, not to mention the economic problems in Michigan caused by the woes of the Big Three auto companies," she said.

"It's an exciting time to be practicing law in the employee benefits area because of current and upcoming changes in our national health care policy with a number of new laws, such as the temporary COBRA subsidy for involuntarily terminated workers," she continued. "But the fact remains that this is a very tough time for employers who are trying to keep affordable health insurance available to their employees. I try to help these companies design creative solutions to this challenge."

Despite her honors, being a lawyer was not Conway's original plan.

"I was in my mid-30s living in South Carolina and working in a governmental urban planning office when I decided I was ready for a career change," she said. "I had several friends who were lawyers and their work seemed very interesting to me. As a result, I applied to and was accepted at the University of Michigan Law School and moved back to the Midwest to start a new career."

Throughout the years, a lot of things have changed in the profession.

"When I arrived at Warner Norcross & Judd LLP 25 years ago, there were 75 attorneys but only two were women," Conway said. "It was a very strange feeling for me because previously I had many female colleagues at work and at school -- I had two sisters, went to an all-women's college and even my law school class was well over a third female.

"Besides the absence of women attorneys when I started practicing law, the luncheon club in our building was men only -- women could not be members and could not even eat in the dining room. That was all about to change. Today our law firm has over 50 women attorneys (still only about 25 percent of the firm but growing) and four more of them became partners just last month.

"I like to think that I have been a mentor to some of those women and helped them in their struggles to balance their careers with their families and other interests. I am proud that as a result of the arrival of women attorneys at Warner Norcross, the firm took a stand to refuse to subsidize attorney expenses at that all-male luncheon club until it changed its single-gender policy. Today the club has dozens of female members and the manager of the club as well as the past president and a number of board members are women."

Conway said being from northwest Ohio was very beneficial for her.

"Growing up in Bryan has had an important influence on my life," she said. "After graduating from Bryan High (in 1964), I lived in New York state, Washington, D.C., and then Charleston, S.C., before returning to law school in the Midwest. I think there really is a sense of integrity, a spirit of teamwork and a work ethic that Midwesterners -- especially those in smaller towns and cities -- share that is not as evident in other parts of the country. Those attributes were certainly instrumental in any career success I have had.

"But my most important influence was the people. It's amazing how often I think about the incredible teachers I had in the Bryan school system, and the wonderful Bryan friendships that remain solid today."

Conway returns the area often. Her mother, Polly Oberlin, still lives in Bryan, as does her sister, Cynthia Reindle, and brother, Cliff.

Not only has family remained a big part of her life, so has education. Conway is a member of the adjunct faculty at Grand Valley State University. She team teaches an employee benefits class at Grand Valley with her law partners. Conway said she enjoys the break from regular legal work and the opportunity to interact with college students.

In addition to her various law groups, she is involved in several organizations in Michigan. She is on the executive board of Leadership of Grand Rapids and has been on the board of the Legal Aid of West Michigan and Visiting Nurse Foundation and past president of the Women's Resource Center.