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Mary Kristen Kelly

Mary Kristen Kelly is counsel and a member of the firm’s Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety practice. She works as a strategic partner to employers, both local and multistate, and strives to provide practical and solutions-oriented advice. Her experience includes counseling management and human resources professionals on a wide range of labor and employment law issues, including hiring, disciplinary action, termination, policy and process development and implementation, disability and leave management, restrictive covenants, and internal investigations. She also defends employers against charges of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation before federal and state administrative agencies throughout the United States.

Prior to joining the firm, Mary Kristen served as assistant general counsel for global employment law with a Fortune 500 company based in Durham. Previously, she was in-house counsel to a multinational biotechnology company and an associate at a boutique litigation firm in Raleigh.

During law school, Mary Kristen served as a teaching assistant in the Legal Analysis, Research and Writing program. She also was a student attorney in the Duke Children’s Law Clinic where she provided legal representation to low-income, at-risk children in cases involving special education, school discipline, and children’s disability benefits.

  • North Carolina Bar Association
  • (Trans)forming Traditional Interpretations of Title VII: “Because of Sex” and the Transgender Dilemma, 17 Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, 219-239 (2010)
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