Ms. Conner, with over 30 years of legal, accounting and business experience, practices in real estate, trust and estate planning, business transactions, labor and employment, and litigation support services.
Prior to joining Arnold, Gruber & Haren, she held various positions, including Vice President, Corporate Counsel and Assistant Secretary, with The Davey Tree Expert Company and various subsidiaries, until retirement on January 1, 2018. She was responsible for managing many legal activities in the United States and Canada, as well as annual proxy statement development and solicitation; contract review, development and negotiation; U.S. and Canadian acquisition and joint venture development and negotiation; labor and employment matters including immigration, union negotiation and grievance investigation and defense; OFCCP, wage and hour, EEOC, and state law employment investigations and defense; intellectual property matters; credit and collections issues; and general corporate matters. Upon graduation from law school in 1994 Ms. Conner implemented and developed the Company’s first in-house Legal Department.
Ms. Conner was also Assistant Controller of the Company, managing the financial accounting, operational accounting, payroll, receivables, accounts payable and billing functions; as well as 10K and 10Q Securities and Exchange reporting, compiling the annual shareholders report, monthly and annual consolidated financial statements, and budget and profitability analysis.
Ms. Conner maintained a limited private practice representing clients in legal matters including estate planning, contract dispute, real estate, litigation, and election campaign investigations. She was Secretary/Treasurer of the Davey Company Foundation, was an adjunct instructor with Kent State University Department of Accounting, and an instructor for the Becker/Conviser CPA review course.
Ms. Conner was Kent State University Alumnus of the Year 2014/2015 and a Crains Cleveland Business General & In-House Counsel Award Finalist in 2014. She has published articles in the OSBA Labor and Employment Newsletters and has been a speaker at the Mid-West Employment Law seminar, the Cleveland Bar Association and other legal and accounting seminars. She has also conducted Contract seminars at Stark State College.
She is a Board member of The Portage Foundation and University Hospitals Portage Medical Center serving in various capacities including President and Treasurer. She has also served on the Kent State University Department of Accounting Advisory Council, and the Ohio State Bar Association Labor and Employment Section Council; as well on various community boards including Ravenna Township Zoning Board of Appeals and Portage County United Way.
She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Akron. While attending law school and working full-time, she received the American Jurisprudence Award for high achievement as a legal scholar in Commercial Law and Criminal Law, won the University of Akron American Bar Association Client Counseling Competition, completed alternative dispute resolution/mediation training and achieved the top grade in the Seminar in Business Planning and Criminal Law courses.
Prior to attending law school, Ms. Conner received her undergraduate degree from Kent State University in Accounting and Business Administration. After graduation she sat for and passed both the Ohio Certified Public Accounting (CPA) and the Ohio Certified Management Accounting (CMA) exams.