Litigation Practitioner: Caroline Hermeling

Partner, Husch Blackwell

St. Louis 

Caroline Hermeling, a partner with Husch Blackwell in St. Louis, said that becoming an attorney always seemed like a viable career path to her as her father was an attorney and she maintained throughout her life a strong interest in political science. She graduated cum laude with her law degree from Saint Louis University. 

She was drawn to litigation as a young lawyer because it involved more public speaking, problem solving and advocating for clients in the courtroom. 

“That is what brought me the most joy,” she said. 

Hermeling’s practice centers around real estate, development and construction law. 

“She handles claims across the spectrum of real estate, development and construction, including sales and commercial leases, eminent domain, land use, title issues and foreclosures,” according to her firm.

Over the years, Hermeling has held a variety of leadership positions both within the legal community and relating to diversity, equity and inclusion. She said she has particularly focused on increasing diversity and the number of women in her firm through recruitment and mentorship. 

These diversity initiatives have taken on a variety of forms and initially started on an informal basis, Hermeling said. However, they have since turned more formal, graduating to committees and specialized groups and programs to provide formal direct sponsorship and mentorship to encourage not only diversity in recruitment, but also in leadership. 

“In particular with my roles as chief executive officer and office managing partner and strategic business unit leader, I was in a position where I was able to directly get diverse lawyers recruited, retained … developed mentoring and sponsorship programs and was in a position, frankly, to get them to partner and equity partner and provide support that way,” Hermeling said. 

In addition to this work within her firm, Hermeling serves on the Women in the Legal Profession Committee of The Missouri Bar and on the on the Women’s Justice Committee. Hermeling said it is exciting to see how the profession has changed for women in Missouri throughout her career.

“(When) I was starting out at a law firm with very few female equity partners, or at the time partners in general, (now) there is just a wealth of peer resources available to women and minority lawyers that did not exist,” she said.