Degee Wilhelm

wilhelm@goconnorlaw.com

614.323.2792

Degee Wilhelm is a founder and managing partner at O’Connor, Haseley, & Wilhelm LLC. She is admitted to the bar in the States of Ohio and Illinois, and at the United States Supreme Court. She earned her J.D., with honors, from the Chicago-Kent School of Law in 2002, where she was the President of the Moot Court Honor Society and received CALI awards in Trial Advocacy and Legislative Advocacy.

Upon graduation, she joined the Chicago-based firm of Ungaretti & Harris, specializing in government relations. After moving to Ohio, she was named to the Ohio Elections Commission, where she served for eight years, stepping down as Chair at the end of 2018.

Wilhelm’s commitment to fair and honest elections has led to a relationship with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and regular assignments to oversee and observe the conduct of elections in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Balkans, including Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, Belarus, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, and Serbia.

Wilhelm has a long history of political and civic involvements: she spearheaded the Columbus bid for the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she has served as a delegate or staffer to every Democratic National Convention since 1992, she worked as a scheduler in the 2008 Ohio campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, she was Sen. John Kerry’s “authorized representative” for Illinois during the 2004 campaign, she was a personal aide on the campaign plane to then-Governor Bill Clinton in 1992, and was a scheduler for Jill Biden, the wife of then-Sen. Joseph Biden, during the 1988 cycle.

Earlier in her career, Wilhelm served as a Managing Director in Government Affairs for American Airlines in Washington, D.C., where she had previously worked as a flight attendant.

Wilhelm graduated from Baylor University in 1988, with a BBA.

A native of rural Iowa who grew up on a farm, today Wilhelm lives in Nashville, TN, with her husband, David. She is the proud mother of two young men, Luke and Logan, who are graduates of The Ohio State University.

wilhelm@goconnorlaw.com