Michelle P. Wimes

Michelle P. Wimes serves as the Director of Professional Development and Inclusion at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., one of the nation’s largest labor and employment law firms.  In her role, Michelle leads the firm’s efforts to recruit, orient, retain, promote and advance a diverse group of attorneys across the firm’s national platform of 41 offices in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Additionally, she leads the training of the firm’s attorneys and staff by developing and implementing performance management practices and professional competencies. Michelle is based in Ogletree Deakins’ Kansas City office.
 
From 2008 to 2011 Michelle served as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P., a nationally recognized global product liability firm where she worked closely with the firm's Executive, Search, Professional Development, Associate and Diversity committees as well as the Women’s Management Council and the Mentoring Task Force to coordinate diversity initiatives across the firm’s nine city offices in the United States and Europe.
 
Under her leadership, Michelle garnered national recognition for Shook including the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's Thomas L. Sager Award, Altria Law Department’s Inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Award, The Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index Award, Working Mother and Flex-Time Best Law Firms for Women Award, and The Coca-Cola Legal Department’s Inaugural Living the Values Diversity Award.
 
Michelle recently completed a two year term on the Executive Board of the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals, a national organization dedicated to improving diversity in the legal profession. Additionally, Michelle is a nationally renowned presenter on professional development, diversity and inclusion issues in the workplace on topics such as, “Engaging Decision-makers and Practice Group Leaders in Diversity and Inclusion Efforts;” “Aligning Associate Competencies and Diversity Principles;” and “Reconciling Diversity, Inclusion & Meritocracy: Challenges & Opportunities.” She has presented before organizations such as the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the Center for Legal Inclusiveness, the National Association of Legal Professionals, the National Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute, and the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals.
 
Earlier in her legal career, Michelle handled all aspects of employment litigation while serving as an equity partner at a Kansas City-based firm.  She focused on matters involving employment discrimination, harassment, and civil rights issues while representing clients before the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as local, state and federal courts.
 
Michelle has been recognized nationally and locally for her many professional contributions. Ingram's magazine selected Michelle as a member of the “40 Under 40 Class of 2005” and in 2007, Michelle received The Daily Record’s Legal Leader of the Year Award. In 2009, Kansas City's Call newspaper recognized Michelle as one of the top 25 most influential African-American Kansas Citians, and in 2012 Michelle was awarded the Distinguished Arts and Science Alumni Award from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Michelle has also been featured in SAVOY magazine (Summer 2009, Summer 2011), MultiCultural Law magazine (Spring/Summer 2009, Fall 2011), and The Kansas City Business Journal (September 2012).
 
Michelle has been active in her community by serving in leadership positions. She is currently chairing the Archives Committee of The Greater Kansas City chapter of The Links, Inc. and has been selected as an Executive Baron for the American Cancer Society’s annual Cattle Baron’s Ball.  She served as President of the Gifted Hands’ Domestic Violence Prevention Center for seven years.  She has served on the University of Central Missouri’s Board of Governors, UMKC’s Alumni Association Board of Directors where she chaired the Minority Affairs Committee, and the UMKC Arts and Sciences Alumni Board. She has also served as Vice President of KIPP Endeavor Academy, a nationally recognized charter school in Kansas City, and as co-chair of the American Cancer Society-Kansas City’s 25th Annual Gala.
 
Prior to a career in law, Michelle was an elementary and middle school teacher in Kansas City. She received a B.A. from the University of Missouri and performed graduate work at the University of Seville in Spain and undergraduate work at the University of Xalapa in Veracruz, Mexico. Due to her studies and her extensive legal work in Latin America, she is fluent in Spanish. Michelle earned her law degree, with trial advocacy honors, from Tulane Law School. She is the proud wife of newly appointed federal district court judge Brian C. Wimes and the mother of three daughters, Sydney, Gabrielle, and Saige.