Mary Kathryn Kelley

Board Chair

Mary Kathryn Kelley is Pro Bono Counsel at Cooley LLP, where she focuses her legal practice on managing her law firm’s pro bono legal work to underserved communities.  She is primarily responsible for the firm’s pro bono work throughout Southern California. Prior to becoming Pro Bono Counsel, Mary Kathryn maintained a strong pro bono practice, with a particular emphasis on impact litigation, e.g. lawsuits that are designed to change laws, affect policy or address the rights of groups of people, even if the person represented is an individual.  In 2018, Mary Kathryn’s practice shifted to focus entirely on managing Cooley’s extensive pro bono program through which the firm performs tens of thousands of hours of free legal work per year. While this work addresses a wide range of issues, including poverty, civil rights and access to justice issues, Mary Kathryn is most passionate about empowering marginalized communities. Shortly after taking over the pro bono role, this strong interest led Mary Kathryn and Free to Thrive to work together to launch a collaboration through which Cooley lawyers provide pro bono legal services to Free to Thrive clients. 

Among other professional and community involvement, Mary Kathryn is a member of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel, a nationwide organization of pro bono attorneys, the SoCal Legal Services Disaster Planning Committee, has been a Board member of the San Diego County Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (SDFBA), and was a founding co-chair of the SDFBA’s annual Women in Law Conference. She received a B.S. from Mills College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.