Photo by Jim Block via sfbar.org.
The Equal Justice Society congratulates our board member Kelly M. Dermody on receiving the 2019 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the American Bar Association highest award for women in the profession.
Established by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession in 1991, the Margaret Brent award recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of women lawyers who have excelled in their field and have paved the way to success for other women lawyers.
Kelly is Managing Partner of the San Francisco office of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. She chairs the firm’s Employment Practice Group and specializes in class and collective actions on behalf of employees. Kelly is a nationally-recognized advocate in the areas of pay equity, #metoo, and diversity and inclusion, and has prosecuted numerous cases challenging unfair hiring, promotion, compensation, and performance systems.
“Here at BASF, we are incredibly honored and proud to have been part of the professional trajectories of these trailblazers,” says Executive Director Yolanda Jackson. “I have known Kelly since 2008 and have seen her consistently and with passion mentor and create opportunities for young women throughout our Bay Area legal community. She is intentional and unapologetic about her work to improve our profession.”
“Women in professional jobs are now getting fed up with seeing the same problems get regurgitated generation after generation,” said Kelly. “I’ve had a lot of class actions involving financial services and technology by women working in male-dominated industries where there have been prominent women who broke the glass ceiling 25 years ago and nothing changed.”