About

Kelly McNamara career history is both remarkable and rare. From her humble beginnings as an unpaid summer intern, she went on to become Discover’s general counsel (the company was spun out twice in that time). In her early days, she found herself taking on the triple challenge of work, study and motherhood. She says ‘I did law school at night, and couldn’t have done that if my bosses hadn’t cut me a break. As I began managing more people, I didn’t want to forget that’. The outcome is that her own team now benefits from various flexible working initiatives; for example they may accrue extra hours in the week and take Friday off, or they can work from home when needed. McNamara Corley hopes that by placing such emphasis on worklife balance, this attitude might eventually rub off on law firms. She has certainly impressed Jonice Gray Tucker at BuckleySandler, who says ‘it is noteworthy that she insists upon having a diverse staff, and the flexible work arrangements ensure she can retain talented people’. In addition to driving a culture shift across the legal profession, McNamara Corley puts a lot back into her community as a whole: economically challenged high school children benefit from Discover’s work/study sponsor program, and she sits on the board of George Mason University. She is also a board member and fundraiser for charities HistoryMakers and Haven Youth and Family Services. All this while getting to grips with managing risk and compliance during the biggest period of regulatory change the credit card industry has seen in living memory.