Meet The Founder
Heather M. Palmore Esq.
Heather M. Palmore, Esq. was born in Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York and was raised in Amityville and attended Malverne Public Schools. She is a graduate of Cornell University where she was a member of the Cornell Women’s Basketball team and was initiated into the Mu Upsilon chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. At Cornell, she discovered her passion for advocacy when she was awarded the Elsie Van Buren Award, Cornell University’s highest honor for speech and advocacy, and Heather M. Palmore, Esq. received that distinction for two consecutive years. She was also a member of Cornell University’s award-winning Forensics Club, which participated throughout the country in the field of speech and debate. While earning a Bachelor of Science degree, with Honors, in Policy Analysis and Consumer Economics and Housing, she was also selected as a Ford-Mellon Foundation Scholar to Yale University,in which she studied under Dr. Jessie Geller, the reliability of child eyewitness testimony in legal proceedings. It was from these combined experiences, that she decided to pursue a career in law.
Immediately upon graduation from Cornell, Palmore enrolled in Syracuse University's College of Law. At Syracuse, in her third year of law school, she made history at the College of Law by being selected as the first African-American Teaching Assistant to teach first year law students both writing and oral advocacy skills with her own law section. In 1995, Heather graduated from Syracuse University's College of Law with distinction. She was the Executive Director of the award-winning Moot Court program and lead the school to regional and national championships.
After graduation, Heather entered public service and was appointed as an Assistant to the District Attorney of Queens County, by the late Honorable Richard A. Brown. During this time, Palmore worked as an Assistant District Attorney, where she led the entire office in trial and convictions for two consecutive years. She worked on trials in the areas of homicide, sexual assault, narcotics, and other major crimes. During this time, she was featured as a panelist on Dateline NBC with respect to race and perceptions in the field of criminal law following the Amadou Diallo shooting in New York City.
In 2000, she joined the law firm of Conway, Farrell, Curtin & Kelly, P.C., as a Trial Attorney. In 2007, Heather was elected Partner, becoming the first African-American female elected Partner at the firm and becoming the only woman of color to be named partner in the firm's 60 year history. At Conway Farrell, Palmore was the “go-to” attorney on the firm's high exposure cases, including premises, wrongful death, construction/labor law,education law and other related matters. During her tenure at Conway Farrell, Palmore tried over 50 cases to verdict, all resulting in the favor of her clients.
Palmore has also worked at Nationwide Insurance and CNA Insurance as a Senior Trial Attorney, where she continued to litigate high exposure cases, on behalf of her clients. From 2017-2019, she served as Chair of the African American Employee Network, a national position for CNA Financial, a multi-billion dollar, Fortune 500 company, based in Chicago, Illinois, where she specialized in high exposure premises, wrongful death,construction/labor law and other related practice areas. Palmore was most recently a
Partner at Quintarios, Prieto, Wood and Boyer, a Miami, Florida based law firm and the largest minority and women owned law firm in the United States. Palmore has been a frequent presenter for CLE courses, conferences, universities and to the state and regional communities, at large.
In 2021, Palmore established the Palmore Law Group, P.C., a full-service law firm, with concentration in personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, Mass Torts, civil rights, employment, criminal and family law, and labor/construction law. Some of Palmore’s most recent accomplishments include leading the legal team for Travis Williams, owner of HBCU All Stars. Through her work and that of attorney Benjamin L. Crump, they negotiated a multi-million dollar contract with CBS to bring to viewers the first-ever HBCU All Star Game, to air on CBS, during the Final Four © weekend in March of 2022, in New Orleans. This historic endeavor will, for the first time, showcase, nationally, the best student athletes in a cross-section of HBCU talent. Palmore also represented Jennifer McLeggan, the Valley Stream, New York, single mother, who was harassed by her neighbors and were ultimately convicted of their crimes.
In July of 2020, at the height of the social justice reforms that took place throughout the country, Palmore was a founding Board member of Advancement of Blacks in Sports, where she was an Executive Board member and served as General Counsel for the organization. Advancement of Blacks in Sports serves Black student athletes and coaches in every sport, and in collegiate athletics, from Division I, II and III, as well as professional athletes. Members of Advancement of Blacks in sports include Craig Robinson, Mike
Anderson, Dave Leito, Felicia Hall Allen and Julius Erving, among other coaches and athletes, whose mission is to address racial, social and economic inequity in sports. In February 2022, Palmore will be featured in CORE Magazine, as one of the 100 Most Influential Blacks in America. CORE was founded by Bo Porter, former Manager of the Houston Astros.
Some of Palmore's honors included the recipient of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Drum Major Award, Soror of the Year Award, awarded by the Pan-Hellenic Council for her work in both her chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha and in the community, North Atlantic Region Citizen of the Year for Alpha Kappa Alpha, The Network Journal Magazine's Top 40 Under Forty Achievement Award for her impact in the business community, Long Island Business News named her one of the Top 50 Influential Women in Business for her contributions to the Long Island regional business community, Chair of the Suffolk County Board of Ethics, where she was appointed unanimously by the Suffolk County Legislature and an induction into the Malverne Hall of Fame for her outstanding athleticism.
Heather has served in leadership positions. She is a member of the Wake Forest University Parents’ Council, where she and other members have raised and maintained a$1.3 billion dollar endowment for the university. She previously served as President of Jack and Jill of America, Suffolk County Chapter, for four years, served as President of the Ivy Foundation for Theta Iota Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc and served on the Executive Board.
Palmore's additional honors include appointment by the New York State Board of Regents to the Roosevelt Board of Education as a Trustee, a member of the Energeia Partnership-Academy for Regional Stewardship at Molloy College, and serving as a Trustee at Molloy College.
Heather is a mother to one son, Miles Palmore Middleton, who is a 2021 graduate of Wake Forest University, where he was Student Body President. He is currently serving in the Infantry branch as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, New York.
Awards & Recognitions
Long Island Business News-Top 50 Women in Business
CORE Magazine 100 Most Influential Blacks in America
Network Journal 40 Under 40
Martin Luther King Drum Major Award
NAACP Award for Outstanding Community Service
Alpha Kappa Alpha, North Atlantic Region Outstanding Community Service
National Panhellenic Council Soror of the Year
Black Women of Long Island Top 10 Women on Long Island
Affiliations/Positions
(Present & Former)
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Theta Iota Omega Chapter, Parliamentarian
Jack and Jill of America, Inc., Suffolk County Chapter, President & Life Member
Suffolk County Board of Ethics, Board Chairman
Molloy University, Board of Trustees
Roosevelt Public Schools, Board of Education Trustee
CNA Insurance, Co-Chair African American Employee Network Group
Advancement of Blacks in Sports, Founding Board Member, General Counsel
NAACP, Lakeview Branch
New York State School Boards Association
New York State Bar Association
Amistad Bar Association
Wake Forest University Parents Council