The New York Law Journal has recognized Noreen Kelly, managing partner of McGuireWoods’ New York office, as a 2018 Distinguished Leader.
The honor recognizes lawyers in leadership positions who have accomplished impressive results over the past year. Winners will be honored at the New York Legal Awards on Oct. 10 and profiled in NYLJ’s upcoming Professional Excellence magazines.
“I am delighted to be chosen for this honor and for the implicit recognition of the firm’s growing profile in New York,” Kelly said.
Since taking the helm of the firm’s New York office three years ago, Kelly has been integral to the strategic expansion of McGuireWoods’ broker-dealer, restructuring, finance and white-collar practices in New York to better serve the firm’s financial institution clients. Over the past year, the New York office welcomed five new partners, expanded its global real estate finance practice by six lawyers and relocated into a striking new Midtown office.
Through it all, Kelly kept her practice as a nationally respected financial services litigator as busy as it has ever been and led the firm’s financial institutions industry team. Her recent representations include a major investment bank in connection with SEC and FINRA inquiries related to institutional trading and regulatory reporting issues; two former employees of a global banking and financial services company in connection with a DOJ investigation regarding whether the underwriting and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities violated the FIRREA statutes; and an international bank related to allegations involving the massive Petrobas corruption investigation.
Kelly has been active in community charitable work. Over the past year, she helped organize a long-term partnership with client Panasonic to staff a veterans’ legal clinic in the city — an initiative that energized and fostered camaraderie in the New York office and allowed for team-based relationship-building with Panasonic.
“When you find a great lawyer who’s a great leader, you have the rarest and most essential component needed to build great law firms. That’s what we have in Noreen,” said McGuireWoods chairman Jon Harmon.