The POWER List: Hayley E. Hanson

Husch Blackwell, Kansas City

With more than two decades of experience in education law, Hayley Hanson represents clients ranging from K-12 school districts to major research institutions. She helps guide schools through the regulatory environment and the potential for litigation on issues ranging from social media to Greek life. She also is a nationally recognized speaker for leading industry organizations.

Earlier in her career, Hanson played a role in representing the Kansas City, Missouri School District in the sprawling litigation over desegregation measures known as Jenkins v. Kansas City School District. And in 2011, she was part of a case in the Missouri Supreme Court, Dydell v. Taylor, in which the court upheld the federal Coverdell Teacher Protection Act as a permissible exercise of the spending power of Congress and held the act’s immunity provision applies in Missouri.

Hanson serves on board of directors of Friends of the Kansas City Zoo and the local chapter of Teach for America, and she previously was on the board of Debate Kansas City.

Missouri Lawyers Media has honored her twice: as an Up & Coming Lawyer in 2008 and as a Business Practitioner in the 2017 Women’s Justice Awards.

Hanson earned her law degree from Drake Law School in 2000.