Anastasia Kelly ’71

Anastasia Kelly ’71 is a partner with DLA Piper, a global law firm with lawyers in more than 40 countries. She is currently the senior advisor to the chair of DLA Piper and executive director of client relations. She was co-managing partner of DLA Piper’s business in the Americas, 2012-2020, which generated more than $1 billion in annual revenues. She was responsible for developing strategy for and oversight of more than 1,400 lawyers in 27 offices across the U.S. and additional offices in Canada and Mexico City.

She graduated with honors from Trinity, where she majored in English. She earned her law degree, magna cum laude, from George Washington University Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and the George Washington University Law Review. She served as a member of the Trinity Board of Trustees.

Stasia Kelly has extensive experience as both outside counsel and as a general counsel and brings these perspectives to her practice, working closely with boards of directors, general counsel and in-house legal teams, helping clients design and implement effective governance and compliance programs. She also advises boards and executives on crisis management. Firmly committed to helping advance women at DLA Piper, she is a mentor to a number of the women lawyers and is on the leadership committee of the firm’s Leadership Alliance for Women, which is committed to the hiring, development and advancement of women lawyers.

Stasia Kelly joined DLA Piper in 2010 after a 15-year career as general counsel in four major public companies. She has previously advised across several areas of the law, including the regulation of financial institutions and securities firms and white collar defense. In her four general counsel roles, she focused on helping companies through challenging crises and building effective legal and compliance organizations.

She served as the senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Fannie Mae, where she centralized the company’s legal and compliance functions and upgraded the talent across Fannie Mae’s five offices nationwide. In 1999, she was recruited as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Sears, Roebuck, where she restructured the legal and compliance teams and developed and strengthened the company’s legal and compliance functions. In 2002, she joined the restructuring team at MCI/WorldCom during its bankruptcy and restructuring in what was then the largest ever U.S. bankruptcy. She served as executive vice president and general counsel of MCI and helped lead the team that successfully brought MCI out of bankruptcy, culminating in the acquisition of MCI by Verizon in 2006. She joined AIG (American International Group) in 2006 as executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance and regulatory officer. In 2009, she was named vice chair of AIG with additional responsibility for government relations, external communications, human resources and corporate affairs.

Stasia Kelly serves on the board of directors of two public companies: O-I Glass, the world’s largest manufacturer of glass packaging, and Huntington-Ingalls Industries, which designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard.

She has been honored with many awards that underscore her contributions to the legal profession. In 2014, the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession honored Stasia with the prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award for her many career successes and her extensive involvement in assisting other women to succeed in the field of law. The National Law Journal named her to its list of ”Trailblazers & Pioneers,” recognizing the top 50 legal professionals in the areas of governance, risk and compliance. Lawdragon magazine named her to its Lawdragon 500, noting that “with 15 years under her belt as a general counsel for four different public companies, Kelly now chairs DLA Piper’s esteemed governance practice, while also co-running the megafirm’s U.S. operations.”