The POWER List: Mary Anne Sedey

Sedey Harper Westhoff, St. Louis

Can a judge be sued for sex discrimination? Mary Anne Sedey thought so, and in 1987 she argued and won a unanimous ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court, Forrester v. White, holding that a woman could bring a case against an Illinois judge despite his judicial status.

Along with fellow POWER honoree Donna Harper, formerly with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and now her law partner, Sedey won a nearly $5 million racial-discrimination verdict in St. Louis Circuit Court in 1996 for two hotel employees and a $47 million class action settlement in 2002 in a sex-discrimination suit against a car rental company.

Sedey also was the lead attorney for Francine Katz, a former Anheuser-Busch executive who alleged that she was paid less than her male predecessor and colleagues. The highly publicized case ended in a defense win in 2014.

Sedey is a former president of the National Employment Lawyers Association and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. She earned her law degree from Saint Louis University in 1975.