Kelly M. Dermody

Kelly Dermody 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.

In 2012, Kelly served as President of the Bar Association of San Francisco. She is a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the American Law Institute. She is a past member of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section governing Council, where she also previously served as Co-Chair of the Section’s Annual Conference, Committee on Diversity in the Legal Profession, and Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. The Daily Journal has selected Kelly as one of the top 100 attorneys in California, top 75 labor and employment lawyers in California, and top 100 women litigators in California. In 2016, The Recorder awarded her the “Giant Slayer” award for her litigation work.

Kelly has received awards from charitable and civic organizations, including the National Association of Women Judges, the Anti-Defamation League, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, California Rural Legal Assistance, Legal Momentum, Equal Rights Advocates, Centro Legal de la Raza, and Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. Kelly received a B.A. degree from Harvard University and a J.D. degree from Berkeley Law School, UC Berkeley. She clerked for the Hon. John T. Nixon, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, before joining Lieff Cabraser.

In 2019, Kelly received the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, considered the highest honor for women in the legal profession, as well as the Judge Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Committee.

In 2021, Kelly was appointed Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Labour & Employment Law.