William M. Palmer
Biography
Will is an Associate in the firm’s Norfolk office and a member of the Labor & Employment practice group and the Sports & Entertainment Industry Team. His practice focuses on employment litigation and employer counseling on how best to avoid employment litigation. Will regularly counsels his clients on a wide variety of workplace matters, including personnel policies, unemployment benefits, severance agreements, wage payment issues, discrimination avoidance and non-competition agreements. He also applies his litigation and advising experience to the sports and entertainment industries where he is regularly engaged to speak and advise on the latest developments in Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) legislation, compliance with NCAA regulations, and contract review and negotiations.
Practices
Industries
Recognition & Honors
- 100 People to Meet; Virginia Business, 2025
- Best Lawyers in America; “Ones to Watch,” 2025
- Virginia’s Legal Elite; Virginia Business Magazine, 2024
- NextGen Award; CoVaBiz Magazine; 2024
- Virginia Rising Stars, Virginia Super Lawyers, 2024
- Scholarship and Leadership Award, American Law Institute; 2019
Admissions
- Supreme Court of Virginia
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
Education
- Christopher Newport University; B.A., 2016
- Regent University School of Law; J.D., 2019
Reported opinions and published articles
- Unpardoned by Lincoln: Stephen A. Douglas’s House Servant, 44 LINCOLN F. BULL., September 2018
- Assassination in Jackson County, MILITARY IMAGES, January 2016
Press & Publications
- Sports & Entertainment Alert – Outgoing Departments of Education and Justice Weigh in on NIL
- William M. Palmer Named by Virginia Business as One of ‘100 People to Meet in 2025’
- 51 Kaufman & Canoles Attorneys Named to Virginia Business Magazine’s “Legal Elite” 2024
- CoVaBIZ NextGen 2024 Outstanding Young Professionals: William Palmer, Kaufman & Canoles
- 55 Kaufman & Canoles Attorneys Named Best Lawyers in America 2025, 7 Named “Lawyer of the Year,” and 13 Named “Ones to Watch”
- 15 Kaufman & Canoles Attorneys Named as Super Lawyers & 5 Named as Rising Stars 2024
- Tennessee and Virginia v. NCAA: The Wild(er) West of NIL in College Sports
- Game Changer: NIL Law Merges College Athletics, Legal Practice
- William M. Palmer Joins Kaufman & Canoles