Sara O'Keefe

Sara O’Keefe is an employment and labor attorney with Foulston’s litigation and employment practice group in the firm’s Kansas City office. Sara takes a practical, business-first approach to working with clients, helping them find a way to reach their goals through all aspects of the employment relationship. In addition to providing day-to-day advice and counseling to executive leaders and HR professionals, she has extensive experience as an employment and labor specialist on corporate transactions, performing due diligence to identify potential liability, as well as negotiating employment-related terms in purchase agreements, deal-related executive employment and separation agreements, retention agreements, and transition services agreements.

While Sara seeks to help employers avoid litigation whenever possible, she also represents clients in all phases of employment litigation, including defense of discrimination and harassment claims, wrongful termination, and retaliation in state and federal courts and administrative proceedings. She is an experienced litigator skilled in arbitration, mediation, and negotiation, and she works with a wide range of clients across multiple industries, including Fortune 500 companies, governmental entities, private equity firms, and nonprofits.

Sara has been recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in the area of Litigation - Labor & Employment for 2023-2025.  

Sara and her husband, Michael, can often be found around town cheering on their three daughters in various artistic and sports endeavors. In her free time, she enjoys baking, listening to podcasts, and pampering her two very cute mini doodles.

Education

• Washington University St. Louis School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2003)
  Washington University Law Quarterly, Notes Editor
• MidAmerica Nazarene University (B.A. in Communications, 2000)

Admissions

• Kansas
• Missouri

• Employment & Labor
• Litigation & Disputes
• Noncompete & Trade Secret Litigation
• Startup/Entrepreneurship

• Government
• Hospitality & Retail
• Manufacturing

• Sleepyhead Beds, Board of Directors (2021-present)

• Johnson County Bar Association
• Kansas Bar Association
• Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
• Kansas Women Attorneys Association
• Missouri Bar

2025

• AI Risks for HR Professionals (Foulston Siefkin LLP, HR Training Series)
• The First Rule of Ethics Is We DO Talk About Ethics* (Foulston Siefkin LLP, Corporate Counsel Series: Ethics)
• The Termination: Examining an Employment Decision Gone Horribly Wrong (Foulston Siefkin LLP, Employment Law Institute)
• Show Me the Money! Pay Transparency in the Workplace (Foulston Siefkin LLP, Employment Law Institute)

2024

• One Contract Fix Can Reduce Employer Lawsuit Exposure
  -Law360.com

2020

• Preparing to Return U.S. Employees to the Workplace
  -JD Supra

• Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Associate
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Assistant District Counsel
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, Intern for the Hon. Theodore McMillian