Meet Your Attorney, Norma Henning, J.D.

Norma Brenne Henning, J.D. has been a practicing Florida attorney since 1996 concentrating on providing comprehensive legal services to foreign clients. She became a Florida Civil Law Notary in 2002 and was admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 2022. Find Norma Henning on LinkedIn. Currently, she is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Florida and Minnesota Bars, and the Collier County (Florida) Bar Association. 

Born and raised in Germany, Ms. Henning started her professional life working for the U.S. Army Community Public Affairs Office in Ansbach, Germany. She was certified as a Foreign Language Economic Correspondent (Fremdsprachliche Wirtschaftskorrespondentin, IHK Nuremberg) in 1984 and moved to the United States in 1986 to start a family. From 1988 to 1990, she lived in South Korea, where she privately tutored university students in English and German. 

Back stateside, Ms. Henning graduated from Enterprise State Community College in Enterprise, Alabama, and the Hall School of Journalism at Troy (State) University in Troy, Alabama, as the Distinguished Journalism Graduate in 1993. In 1996, she graduated Cum Laude from the University of Florida College of Law where she also received Book Awards for outstanding scholarship in Constitutional Law and Trial Advocacy.

She was admitted to practice law in Florida that same year and spent ten years working as an associate attorney for large law firms before opening the Henning Law Firm in Naples, Florida, in 2006.

In 2003, she was appointed by the German State Department (Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany) as the Honorary Consul of Germany for Western Florida. In this capacity, she supported the German Consulate in Miami in diplomatic and administrative matters until she resigned for family reasons in 2021.

Passion for Germany and the United States. During her 18 years of service, she placed particular emphasis on the economic ties between the two countries – most notably the “German Skills Initiative,” the development of U.S. and apprenticeship programs based on the German dual education model. She participated in successful lobbying efforts in Florida, which led to the foundation of www.amskills.org in Pasco, Hernando, and Pinellas County (Tampa Bay). Based on her own experience with military family life abroad, Ms. Henning supported the German contingent at the U.S. Central Command’s Coalition in Tampa. continues to support commercial and diplomatic efforts and maintains the relationships and networks she has built in her time in office.

Wir. Dienen. Deutschland. (We. Serve. Germany.)  Ms. Henning is a graduate of the 63rd InfoDVag (Leadership Academy for Civilian Leadership Personnel of the German Naval Academy) in Mürwik and a recipient of the Silver Medal of Honor (Ehrenzeichen der Bundeswehr in Silber) of the German Armed Forces.

German American Chamber Activities. Ms. Henning serves as a Board Member and VP of the Minnesota Chapter of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest (GACC-Midwest) and regularly shares her expertise in presentations to GACC-Midwest organized seminars and events. 

Due to her proficiency in the German language and knowledge of her European clients’ cultural backgrounds, she often acts as a family or general counsel to clients with complex legal issues and co-counsels with specialists in other practice areas as needed, such as taxation and litigation, products liability, intellectual property, and employment law.