Shaun Willis had every intention of being a pilot, taking flying lessons while in high school and enrolling in Western Michigan University’s aviation flight science program. But he found his career taking off in a different direction. A really different direction.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer like my dad, but my grandfather was a pilot, and I grew up knowing a lot of pilots. When I was in high school, I would make a little bit of money and take flight lessons out at the Plainwell Airport,” the 50-year-old says. “As I was going through Western, I talked to some pilots that were in the commercial realm and asked, ‘What does it take to move up the ranks there?’ They said, ‘If you have an advanced degree of some sort, a master’s or juris doctor, that’s going to help you excel.’
“Right after college, after I’d been married, I started thinking about the demands of being a commercial pilot and being away from a future family. We were expecting our first child. Then Sept. 11 happened, and the airline industry really collapsed.”
Willis decided to go with his original plan, graduating from law school and co-founding Willis Law Attorneys & Counselors, which provides legal services in just about every area of the law — estate planning, business, construction, real estate, manufacturing, employment — through its offices in Kalamazoo, Paw Paw, Grand Rapids and Chicago. In 2017 he added another credential and career: sports agent.
How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Paw Paw. My dad was a probate judge there for 38 and a half years. I went to Kalamazoo Christian High School, as did Michael, my brother and partner in the law firm. I went on to Western Michigan University and studied aviation flight science and met my future wife, Corrina, there. We got married after I graduated in the winter of 1999.
I decided to pursue law at Cooley Law School in Lansing. I was waiting on my bar results to start practicing law, and Michael called me to say “Well, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you passed the bar.” I called all my friends and Corrina and had a little celebration. I was sworn in by my dad in October 2002.
In college I had a painting company, and that was part of the way I paid for law school. When I started to apply for law jobs in the Kalamazoo area, the offers I was getting — well, I was able to make that much painting and running my crew, so I thought perhaps I could go out on my own (as an attorney).
My first year in practice I did about 40 felony cases. Michael and I were both working in Kalamazoo. Our brother Christopher was a U.S. Marine and served in Iraq in 2003 for eight months. Came back to a hero’s welcome. But in July 2003, he was heading towards the base in Battle Creek, was in a car crash and died. Mike and I at that point said, “Hey, look, if we’re ever going to work together, let’s do it now.”
On March 2, 2004 — which was Chris’s birthday — we started Willis and Willis PLC.
How did you come to represent athletes?
Probably 15 years ago we had an associate by the name of Ryan Wurtzel who had the idea of being licensed as a sports agent. I said, “Let’s do it.” He got the research done but then went to work for his dad running Carleton Equipment, so we left it on the back burner.
Ten years ago Sam Gilbertson joined us as managing partner for Willis Law, and he talked about it as well. We decided that Major League Baseball was a passion for both of us and that that was where we’d like to start.
He was licensed about eight years ago, and since then we’ve helped 75 players through the Major League Baseball draft. We have several players that play or played in the MLB. We represent the largest collegiate baseball league in the world and coaches for Major League Baseball teams. Every year we attend the MLB’s winter meetings and make deals with Rawlings, Under Armour, Louisville Slugger and other major brands for players.
It’s been really, really neat. Three of the players we helped get drafted have made the major leagues. Two of them — Drew Sommers (with the Detroit Tigers) and Tristan Peters (with the Chicago White Sox) — made their MLB debuts in 2025. We also had the opportunity to help Portage’s own baseball star, Zach MacDonald, be drafted by the Tigers this past year.
About three years ago we partnered with Mike Moye, an agent distinguished as one of the toughest negotiators in baseball by Forbes. He’s got Hall of Famers, All-Stars, several first-round draft picks, and has been one of the top agents in the MLB and is a devout Christian man. He was nearing retirement and wanted to find an agency that shared his Christian values, and he found us. Moye has taken us under his wing as a mentor and a partner, and we’ve had the opportunity to help with Alex Call, who won the World Series with the (Los Angeles) Dodgers, and Thomas Hatch with his deals with the Minnesota Twins and Korean ball.
The thing is, there’s a lot of (sports) agents running around that don’t have law degrees and haven’t passed a bar to practice law, and what they’re doing is reviewing contracts — some of the biggest contracts out there — and negotiating contracts, which is what lawyers do. We stand apart, having had experience with hundreds of arbitrations, hundreds of trials, and reviewing tens of thousands of contracts. We’re more qualified to do all of the work that professional athletes need done.
— Interview by Jordan Bradley, edited for length and clarity
