Nancy B. G. Lassen

Nan Lassen is an executive partner in the Philadelphia office of Willig, Williams & Davidson, with whom she has been associated since 1984. Nan's practice is focused exclusively on union-side labor law and employee representation.

Nan comes from a family with strong ties to labor: her father (a disabled veteran) was a Teamster, her mother was a UAW member, and her grandfather was a Steelworker. She has been a tireless and courageous advocate for working men and women for decades.  Working in industry since age 15, Nan developed a deep commitment to unions, and especially to worker safety and health.  On the front line advocating for workers long before she went to law school, Nan is a respected member of the labor law community as well as a professor of labor law.

After more than thirty years of practice as a union-side labor law attorney, Nan has a reputation as a tireless and tenacious advocate for labor organizations and workers in every sector of the workforce, including public employees (uniformed and non-uniformed), federal employees, private sector and industrial workers, transportation workers, and the building trades. Her extensive experience includes representing clients in collective bargaining, state and federal trial and appellate litigation, state and federal administrative agency proceedings, grievance and interest arbitrations, internal union proceedings and occupational health and safety disputes. Nan is also a sought-after speaker, educating union leaders and law students, workers and attorneys in matters such as employment discrimination, family and medical leave, occupational safety and health, effective advocacy and representation skills, fair labor standards and the rights and responsibilities of labor unions and union members.

Prior to joining the firm, Nan attended the University of Michigan (Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha of Michigan. She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law. After law school, Nan was a NIOSH Fellow and received a Master of Science in Occupational Physiology, Safety and Health from Harvard University. Nan clerked for Chief Judge George Clifton Edwards, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 1983-84.  In addition, Nan has been an adjunct professor of labor law at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University.  She is a Fellow of both the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the American Bar Association Foundation, and was the 2021 Labor Lawyer of the year (Union-side, Philadelphia) in Best Lawyers in America.