The Buffalo Niagara Partnership has named Kristin Klein Wheaton, a partner in Goldberg Segalla’s Buffalo office and chair of its Higher Education practice, one of 10 finalists for this year’s ATHENA Leadership Award.

The ATHENA Leadership Award honors an exceptional individual who has achieved professional and personal success, contributed time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in their community, and actively supported women professionals in realizing their own professional excellence. ATHENA Awards are celebrated around the world in more than 500 communities in eight countries, with the Buffalo Niagara Partnership serving as Western New York’s regional representative.

Kristin is an exceptionally skilled problem solver with over 20 years of legal experience counseling and defending the interests of clients arising out of labor and employment matters and complex commercial disputes. Her wide-ranging experience includes labor and employee relations, contract negotiations, and helping her clients create and maintain compliance strategies for state and federal laws. Over the course of her career, Kristin has held a variety of positions in the public and private sectors, including serving as Executive Vice President for Legal Affairs and general counsel at a large community college, and as an Assistant County Attorney, First Assistant County Attorney, and Acting Erie County Attorney in the Erie County Attorney’s Office. She is also an adjunct professor at Hilbert College, where she teaches Trial Preparation and Practice for Paralegals (Advanced Civil Litigation).

In 2015, Kristin was named one of Western New York’s Legal Elite by Buffalo Business First and the Buffalo Law Journal. She possesses an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and is regularly named to lists such as Best Lawyers in America and Buffalo Business First’s Legal Elite.

ATHENA Awards are presented every year by ATHENA International, a nonprofit organization that seeks to support, develop, and honor women leaders.