About Alison

Alison (Sperry) Vawter is a native of McDonough County and Bushnell and Macomb schools. She graduated from Macomb High School in 1983 and Western Illinois University in 1987. While at WIU, Alison worked for several local radio stations, including WKAI, WLRB, and WIUM, and was awarded the E.C. ‘Tug” Haddock radio scholarship. Alison left Macomb for the East Coast after college, and after working in local government, went to work for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington, D.C., as a legislative analyst. Beginning in 1993, Alison went to law school at night at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. She graduated in 1997, after placing first in the school’s Moot Court Competition in her fourth year of law school. After graduation, Alison continued to work for the FAA as an attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel, providing legal representation to witnesses testifying before the United States Congress and later, performing litigation and appellate work.

In 2001, Alison left the FAA and became a family law practitioner in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia, completing her training as a mediator that same year. Practicing under the name of Alison Long, Alison was selected a Pennsylvania Rising Star Super Lawyer in 2007 and 2008. She was honored for her pro bono work for clients unable to afford legal representation by the Bucks County Bar Association in multiple years, by the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 2007, and continues her pro bono service here in Illinois, to which she returned in 2008. Alison completed Illinois coursework for certification as a Guardian Ad Litem for minors and disabled adults and in 2009, and became a mediator in the 9th Judicial Circuit Courts in Illinois in 2011. Her practice is traditional in the sense that she handles all aspects of dissolution (divorce), adoption, and guardianship; she also serves as a privately- and Court-appointed mediator and Guardian Ad Litem in guardianship and high-conflict cases involving children. She is licensed in Maryland (inactive), Pennsylvania (inactive) and Illinois, and practices law in McDonough and surrounding counties, including but not limited to Hancock, Warren, Henderson, Knox, Schuyler and Fulton. 

Alison is a past member of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission Committee of the Illinois State Bar Association and is the current President of the McDonough County Bar Association.  She has been a Macomb Airport commissioner, on the Board of the McDonough County Historical Preservation Society, and currently serves on the Friends of the Macomb Public Library Board.   In 2020, Alison was recognized by Prairie State Legal Services for her pro bono legal work for the disadvantaged.  She is an occasional commentator for Tri States Public Radio.  Alison is married to David Vawter and has two daughters.