Anna Wermuth
COZEN O’CONNOR
PARTNER

Anna Wermuth has been integral to the success of Cozen O’Connor’s national labor and employment practice. Serving as vice-chair of the department, she represents numerous marquee clients in high-stakes litigation before state and federal courts and administrative agencies, such as the EEOC, the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board. She has extensive experience representing employers in individual cases and class actions involving the full-range of employment matters, including discrimination and wage/hour cases, non-compete litigation, and unfair labor practice charges.

Anna has also established a nationally recognized higher-education practice, serving clients such as Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and DePaul University in faculty, staff, and student matters, including union-election campaigns, NLRB proceedings, collective-bargaining and tenure cases, and other significant employment litigation.

Throughout her career, Anna has held multiple American Bar Association (ABA) leadership positions, including her 2021 appointment as vice-chair of the ABA Labor & Employment Section’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Legal Profession Committee. She is also vice-chair of the ABA Labor and Employment Section National Trial Advocacy Competition; the past associate editor of the Bloomberg BNA/ABA Developing Labor Law treatise; and the past co-chair of the Development of the Law under the NLRA Committee. She also served as the chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Committee.

Most recently, Anna was asked to serve on the Illinois Northern District Court’s Rules Advisory Committee, where she will begin a three-year term in 2021.

In 2020, Anna was admitted as a fellow to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a distinction rewarding her sustained outstanding performance in the legal profession. She was also named in 2020 to the list of Women Leaders in the Law by The American Lawyer Magazine and Martindale/Hubbell.

Anna has been ranked by Chambers & Partners in each of the past four years and was named by LawDragon to the national Top 20 list of Traditional Labor and Employment Lawyers for three years in a row. She has also been recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of Chicago’s Notable Women in Law and as one of the city’s Most Influential Women Lawyers -- accolades recognizing her professional, civic, and charitable contributions.

Anna has written and spoken on numerous topics for the ABA, the National Association of College and University Attorneys, the Practicing Law Institute, the Society of Human Resource Management, and numerous other business, bar, and academic associations. She is also a long-standing board member of the Chicago Youth Centers, a nonprofit supporting Chicago families with childhood-education and teen-leadership programs. Anna has also participated in a client-sponsored Street-Law program, sharing her career experiences with area high-school students.

Prior to entering private practice, Anna served as law clerk to the Honorable Rebecca R. Pallmeyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law (J.D. 1999, summa cum laude, salutatorian), from Northwestern University (M.A. 1992), and from DePaul University (B.A. 1991). Anna is the proud mother of two daughters: Lili and Greta.