大卫·欧博伊尔著
2018年8月13日
回顾黛博拉·凯利的职业生涯轨迹, one might assume that Kelly got to where she is today through a series of calculated and purposeful decisions. 然而, her path to becoming partner in the employment and labor practice at Manatt, Phelps & 菲利普斯靠谱的滚球平台事务所根本就没有经过计算.
Her experiences have ranged from stints in the restaurant industry, 她是巴尔的摩金莺队的第一位女引座员, 在危险边缘上比赛, 在中学和大学水平的教学, 练习法, and conducting trainings on workplace rights for audiences from staff to executives.
从她职业生涯的早期开始, Kelly knew she didn’t love the law enough to work on any subject matter. 作为普通诉讼的靠谱的滚球平台, Kelly recalls falling asleep in her firm library while researching consequential damages resulting from the use of Benlate fungicide.
“我记得我当时想，我做不到. 我不在乎，”凯利说. “I had to pick a subject matter expertise where my heart and my head were in the same place.“虽然到达那里的路很曲折, 凯利最终在劳动和就业法中找到了它.
凯利在拉奇蒙特长大, 纽约, 马特·凯利的女儿, a well-known labor arbitrator and professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He served as an arbitrator for organizations such as the North American Soccer League and Players Association and the 纽约 City Transit Authority and Transit Supervisors Organization, as well as arbitrated many public-sector walkouts in 纽约 City in the heyday of unions. 20多年了, he served as the permanent arbitrator for the Consolidated Edison Company of 纽约 — or Con Edison — and the Utility Workers Union of America.
在她父亲的葬礼上, standing in the receiving line as people came to pay their respects, 凯利回忆起ConEd的领导告诉她, “马特是我们的公正仲裁员, 但在, 我们一直都知道他是我们中的一员.” Leaders from the Utility Workers Union of America also expressed the same sentiment, Kelly says.
While her career path has a lot of similarities to that of her father’s, 凯利说，这不是故意的. “我父亲很有礼貌，很完美，”凯利说. “Early on, I decided I didn’t want to have anything to do with following him. But as someone who thought I was the badass rebel child, it didn’t turn out that way.”
At 16, her first act of rebellion was to choose to attend the University of Vermont at the suggestion of a lifeguard she had a crush on and who attended school nearby. But it wasn’t long before a career path began to take shape for Kelly. As an undergraduate, she became interested in politics and teaching. After brief stints teaching middle school in the United States and in England, 凯莉决定成为一名大学教授.
当时她正在约翰霍普金斯大学攻读博士学位, Kelly wrote her dissertation on victims of rape and their view of the criminal justice system. 她的研究是同类研究的先驱之一, and she testified before the President’s Task Force on Victims of Crime and the Maryland legislature, 提交书面国会证词, and served as a consultant to the American 酒吧 Association Criminal Justice Section’s Victims Committee.
Kelly went on to work at the Brookings Institution and to teach political science at the University of Maryland and American University. 然而, she was turned off by the internal politics associated with a career in academia and, 她在美国大学工作了一年, 她决定攻读法律学位.
同时也是美国大学的全职教授, Kelly attended the school’s Washington College of Law and received her J.D.他立志成为一名法学教授. 然而, 在她成为法学院教员之前, her professors encouraged her to work outside of academia and practice law to bolster her qualifications.
认真听取他们的建议, Kelly作为合伙人加入Dickstein Shapiro LLP, planning to practice for two years and then become a law professor.
“当时, my husband told me I was going to be the only person who makes partner at a big law firm because [I] couldn’t get a job teaching,凯利说。. 事情就是这样发生的.”
然而, 就在她开始在公司工作之前, 凯莉发现自己怀孕了，而且是三胞胎. 而且作为第一年的靠谱的滚球平台还要抚养三个孩子, Kelly and the firm worked out a part-time arrangement that allowed her to work at 80 percent while staying on the partner track.
作为一个五年的靠谱的滚球平台, Kelly took on a case representing former Pan Am flight attendants — including Kelly’s sister-in-law — who lost their jobs after Delta pulled the plug on its agreement to acquire Pan Am.
Kelly enjoyed the experience so much that she asked her firm to allow her to launch an employment practice. “我只是觉得我不能再做普通诉讼靠谱的滚球平台了. 如果我要离开我的三个孩子, 我需要把时间花在对我重要的事情上.”
对凯利, 没有比就业更有趣的法律领域了, calling the practice “the second most personal kind of law you can practice,家庭法背后. “Emotions run so high and hurt runs so deep in employment law. People work hard and sacrifice a lot in their work,凯利说。.
Even as an employment attorney, Kelly continues to pursue her passion for teaching. She teaches employment and labor law at American University and conducts compliance training on workplace discrimination, 骚扰, 还有其他讨论的话题, 管理, 和工作人员.
To balance the pressures of her career, Kelly takes to the water. She is an avid long-distance swimmer and has done 26 open water swims with Swim Across America, 一个为癌症研究筹集资金的非营利组织.
“游泳赋予了我希望拥有的个性，”凯利说. “它让人平静而安静.” This summer, Kelly participated in her 19th Long Island Sound Swim.
