Sheryl Willert named 2025 USLAW NETWORK Champions Award recipient

USLAW NETWORK has named Sheryl J. Willert of Williams Kastner in Seattle, Washington, the 2025 USLAW NETWORK Champions Award recipient. The award is presented annually to recognize an individual who has demonstrated outstanding service and dedication to the philanthropic efforts of the USLAW NETWORK Foundation.

“Sheryl (Willert) has been instrumental in the development and continued growth of the USLAW NETWORK Foundation, including important initiatives like the scholarship program, job fairs and mentoring opportunities for law students and future lawyers,” said Immediate Past USLAW Chair Kenneth B. Wingate of Sweeny, Wingate & Barrow, P.A. in South Carolina. “She has committed time, resources and her broad professional network to further the mission of the Foundation. We are proud to recognize Sheryl Willert with the 2025 USLAW NETWORK Champions Award.”

The USLAW NETWORK Champions Award is presented to deserving recipients who have contributed their time, resources, and efforts to further the mission of the USLAW NETWORK Foundation and towards the betterment of the legal field. Recipients embrace the spirit of giving and have made a meaningful difference in the lives of those around them.

The 2025 award was presented to Willert during last week’s 2025 USLAW NETWORK Annual Client Conference in Colorado.

This well-deserved USLAW recognition is added to Willert’s incredible legacy of service to community, the legal industry and aspiring lawyers and future leaders. Read on to learn more.

Willert is a past president of the DRI-The Voice of the Defense Bar, the nation’s largest association of civil litigation defense attorneys. She is also the organization’s first female and first African American officer. In 2009, DRI-The Voice of the Defense Bar, renamed its Pioneer Diversity Award after Willert. The award, now known as the Sheryl J. Willert Pioneer Diversity Award, recognizes an individual attorney for his or her demonstrated commitment to diversity in the legal profession. In 2010, she was honored as one of the Women of Power in Law at the Women of Color Empowered event hosted by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation. In 2011, she received the Loren Miller Bar Association’s Pioneering Woman Award, presented to African American female attorneys who are trailblazers in the legal profession. In 2013, Willert was named to On Being A Black Lawyer’s Power 100 list, a compilation of the nation’s most influential black attorneys working in government, academics, and both the private and public sectors. In 2014, she received the Washington Most Powerful and Influential Women Award from the National Diversity Council. 

USLAW Champions Award recipients include:

• 2025 – Sheryl J. Willert, Williams Kastner (Washington)
• 2024 – Chris Martin, Great American Custom Insurance Services, Inc.
• 2023 – Nicholas E. Christinof Wicker Smith (Florida)