Kelly M. Dermody urged the audience to confront the lack of racial diversity in the legal profession and “the deep-seated bigotry rocking our country now.”
August 11, 2019
Video: Margaret Brent Award recipient Kelly M. Dermody
She said the nation has “not yet engaged in an honest reckoning with white supremacy – historical or ongoing – or our own participation or complicity in systems of oppression.” Dermody is managing partner of the San Francisco office of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein. She is a nationally recognized advocate in the areas of pay equity, MeToo and diversity and inclusion. She has prosecuted many cases challenging unfair hiring, promotion, compensation and performance systems. Dermody is former president of the Bar Association of San Francisco and 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. She has been honored by the National Association of Women Judges, the Anti-Defamation League and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, among others.