Women in the Law 2025 Speed Mentor Biographies
Kelly Douglas ’92
Assistant Vice President and Assistant General Counsel
Legal, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Kelly Douglas is assistant vice president and assistant general counsel in the legal department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In her role, Kelly provides strategic and practical legal advice on general corporate matters, with an emphasis on employment law.
Prior to joining the Boston Fed, Kelly advised on domestic and international employment law issues as an assistant general counsel at Ropes & Gray. She has focused on employment law in various corporate and nonprofit organizations throughout her career.
Kelly earned her bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a JD from the Northeastern University School of Law. She served as a law clerk to the Hon. Gene Carter for the US District Court of Maine. Kelly is a longtime volunteer with the Northeastern Law Brown Forum Women in the Law Conference and has received recognitions from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and New England In-House Counsel for her in-house legal work. She is a member of the MA LGBTQ Bar Association.
Julie Hancock Stande ’13
Partner, Nixon Peabody
Julie Stande is a partner at Nixon Peabody in the real estate division. She assists owners and developers with the acquisition, disposition and financing of multifamily properties, including developments financed with low-income housing tax credits and historic tax credits. Recently, Julie helped a client acquire and finance a 346-unit affordable housing development in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Julie has experience working on many refinancings of affordable housing projects, in particular, those funded through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) 223(f) program. Additionally, in the multifamily sector, she handles both the acquisition of general partner interests in affordable housing projects as well as the disposition of limited partner interests in affordable housing projects, including negotiating purchase and sale agreements for such acquisitions and dispositions. She has received several awards for her work, including Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch since 2023 and was named by Boston magazine to its “Top Lawyer Award,” Real Estate (2021).
Kathryn Lazares ’13
Senior Legal Counsel, Boston Globe Media
Katie Lazares acts as one-quarter of Boston Globe Media’s in-house legal team. Her day-to-day responsibilities include advising newsroom and business partners on a wide range of legal and business matters, including in the areas of intellectual property, First Amendment, employment, labor, privacy, consumer protection, technology/AI, contracts, litigation, insurance, and risk management. Katie is also incredibly passionate about social justice and civil rights causes, especially workplace rights. As a queer-identifying professional, Katie enjoys mentoring LGBTQ+ law students and engaging with various LGBTQ efforts and affiliations. She’s also a member of Boston Globe Media’s Inclusion Council. A Greek American, Katie is a founding member and board member of the New Leaders Division of the Hellenic Initiative, a global nonprofit dedicated to developing sustainable and business improvement programs to aid and promote crisis relief, entrepreneurship and economic development in Greece.
Kathy Morris ’75
Owner, Under Advisement, Chicago; Forbes Council Coach
Kathy Morris is an experienced leader in career counseling and professional development for lawyers through her private practice Under Advisement Ltd., www.UnderAdvisement.com. She has guided countless law students and attorneys to careers they enjoy and perform at the highest level.
Upon graduation from Northeastern Law, Kathy took a job with one of her co-op employers: a criminal defense firm in Honolulu. She tried cases in courtrooms from Hawaii to Massachusetts before returning to Chicago, where she taught legal ethics and directed the career services office at Northwestern University School of Law. She opened her national coaching practice, Under Advisement Ltd. in 1988, beginning decades advising lawyers in-house, in law firms, in the public sector and beyond.
Kathy also pioneered lawyer training and professional development initiatives at Katten; the Chicago predecessor firm of Faegre Drinker; and Sidley Austin. She launched the Chicago Law Firm Training Group and was a charter board member of the national Professional Development Consortium.
The American Bar Association recruited Kathy to re-engineer its Continuing Legal Education Center. In 2000, she also created a Career Resource Center for the ABA. In 2015, she was selected to chair the board of the ABA’s new Legal Career Center and has been the sole featured career counselor for the Chicago Bar Association’s Career Advancement Program for over ten years. Since 2019, she has been an invited member of the Forbes Coaches Council.
Desiree Murphy ’13
Senior Legal Counsel, Labor and Employment, CVS Health
Desiree Murphy is a senior legal counsel for labor and employment law at CVS Health where she provides strategic legal advice to internal business and human resources partners with respect to labor and employment law. In her role, Desiree counsels and provides legal support as it relates to CVS’ compliance with a variety of federal and state labor employment laws, to include Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Desiree also serves an adjunct professor of law at UMass School of Law – Dartmouth.
Desiree started her legal career as a labor counsel in the Department of Labor Relations at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), where she represented and advised management in various labor matters and disputes. Following her tenure at the MBTA, Desiree joined the firm Morgan, Brown, & Joy as an associate, expanding her practice to the include the defense of employers from a variety of industries and jurisdictions in both labor and employment law matters, i.e., employment discrimination, wage and hour violations, breach of contract. Finally, just before joining CVS, Desiree was a Senior labor and employee relations specialist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she managed the Medical Center’s union relationship and collective bargaining obligations, to include collective bargaining negotiations, grievances and arbitration proceedings.
In 2020, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly honored Desiree as an “Up & Coming Lawyer” as well as an “In-House Leader in the Law” in 2023 and one of the “Top Women in the Law” in 2024. Additionally, Desiree was named one of Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” from 2018 to 2020.
Outside of her legal work, Desiree is an active member of the Massachusetts bar and legal community. More specifically, Desiree is an active member of the Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys, for which currently serves as immediate past president; the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association; the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association. Desiree also serves as a board member for the Northeastern University School of Law Alumni/ae Association and the Labor and Employee Relations Association, Boston Chapter.
Lili Palacios-Baldwin ’98
Deputy General Counsel for Labor, Employment and Litigation
Lili Palacios-Baldwin is deputy general counsel for labor, employment and dispute resolution at Tufts University. Lili began her legal career in the Boston office of Robinson & Cole, where she practiced in the areas of land use, real estate, labor and employment law. After R&C, she worked as a trial attorney with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she practiced for almost 10 years, the last few as a senior trial attorney with responsibility for litigating cases throughout the New York District Office (New England, New York, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). After leaving the EEOC, Lili continued her law practice with the law firm of Hirsch Roberts Weinstein in Boston and joined the Tufts University Office of University Counsel in 2013.
Lili is active in the Boston Bar Association, where she is currently a member of the Well-Being Committee and is active with the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) where she is on the board and the chair of the Membership Committee. Lili is also active in other professional and community organizations, including serving as a member of the Mindfulness in Law Society and the Women’s Bar Association. When she is not lawyering, Lili is often engaged in yoga and mindfulness activities, including appreciating the richness of work, life and family, and parenting two fabulous kids.
Lili is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University, Northeastern University School of Law and the School Ayurveda at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.
Cynthia Stewart Reed ’80
ICEO Peer Advisor and Executive Coach
As an advisor with US ICEO, Cindy Stewart Reed works with clients at the highest levels, serving as a trusted advisor, sounding board and thought partner to CEOs and other C-suite leaders. She is an enthusiastic and tireless advocate for her clients, expertly accessing resources and connections while guiding and coaching them to achieve a personally satisfying and rewarding next chapter to their careers.
Cindy is a strategic business leader, board member and investor who served as general counsel of Fortune 500 global toy, game and entertainment company Hasbro Inc., where she managed teams in the US and Europe and oversaw critical enterprise initiatives, including multiple mergers and acquisitions.
Cindy’s board experience includes CEO succession, strategic planning, nominating and governance, finance and audit, and compensation committee assignments for companies in the financial services, insurance, and consumer products industries, as well as for nonprofits in the healthcare, economic development, and museum sectors.
Cindy has guest lectured at several schools, including Harvard Law School, and taught business law at Bryant University.
She is past chair of the Wellesley Business Leadership Council, where she previously led the Corporate Board Initiative, and is a member and past vice-chair of Women Corporate Directors. Cindy is a director of Ocean Point Financial Partners/BankNewport, a trustee and is a Rhode Island commodore.
Jolette Westbrook is the director and senior attorney of equitable regulatory solutions at the Environmental Defense Fund where she focuses on issues associated with an equitable transition to clean energy. Jolette has an extensive energy background which includes serving eight years as a Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. In that position, her responsibilities included overseeing investor-owned utilities and developing alternatives to traditional regulation. Prior to serving on the Commission, Jolette held the position of director of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board. Before working for the Commonwealth, she was the managing attorney at Southeastern Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation.
Jolette holds a JD rom Northeastern School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Russell Sage College. Jolette has been active in such organizations as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners where she served on the Board of Directors. Further, Jolette has been a keynote speaker at various events including the European/US Regulatory Conference and the Annual Conference of the American Association of Blacks in Energy. She is based in Massachusetts.