Pocket Résumé
Leann M. Walsh: Partner at K&L Gates LLP in the Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety practice in Raleigh, NC. Double Honors: Valedictorian of both her law and undergraduate graduating classes. Family Plot: Enjoys gardening with husband Brian and daughters, aged 11 and 8, in the “awesome” NC climate, where “you can throw pretty much any seed into the ground, and it will just grow. Family Plot: Weekly aerial yoga lessons—think Cirque du Soleil—with her daughters.
Leann Walsh ’11 was promoted to partner in the Labor, Employment and Workplace Safety practice of global legal giant K&L Gates in March 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck. “It was terrifying at the time,” said Walsh, “because I was promoted, then immediately the world shut down.”
She saw opportunity as well as challenge in the new uncharted workplace landscape. “I figured that if I could jump in the quickest and learn the fastest and be the first one to raise my hand as clients needed advice on the topic, which all of them did, then I’d have plenty to do,” she said, speaking by Zoom from her sunny office in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Her intuition proved correct. Since that tough beginning, she has grown her practice to a team of eight, the firm’s largest US employment law team on the East Coast. “I’ve found that I really like building a team and creating good jobs for people,” she said. Chosen in 2022 as a “40 Under 40” honoree in Triangle Business Journal and listed in The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America, she was also recognized by Chambers USA for Labor and Employment in North Carolina, 2023-2025.
Walsh learned early in her legal career that work could be a lifeline in hard times. As her father, “a strong burly guy,” helped her move from Florida to Boston for her first year at BC Law, he seemed unusually weak and short of breath. Later diagnosed with leukemia, he passed away right after she completed her 1L year.
Despite the devastating bereavement, Walsh finished the year with outstanding grades. She credits the friends and faculty who shared class notes and moved her car to dodge penalties for breaking Boston’s street-cleaning regulations while she visited her father. Of her accolades from BC Law, the one she prizes most is the Sheila McGovern Award for “achieving personal goals under extraordinary circumstances.”
Initially skeptical that a job in BigLaw could fulfill her early ambition for a purpose-driven career, Walsh found over seven years as an associate at Boston-based Goodwin Procter LLP that she enjoyed “the pace, the sophistication, the complexity, the entrepreneurial spirit of working at a firm.” She valued the firm’s pro-bono commitment and received the Robert B. Fraser Award in 2014 for leadership of the Lawyer for the Day Program in Boston Housing Court, which she coordinated for five years.
At K&L Gates, Walsh now serves a diverse domestic and international clientele spanning numerous industries, including startups and publicly traded companies. She and her team advise on sensitive employee relations issues, conduct internal investigations, and defend employers in civil and administrative employment litigation matters.“We help clients set policies and benefits that impact hundreds of thousands of people every year,” she said, “and I find it really rewarding to partner with clients in that effort.” She enjoys the international aspect of her practice, especially navigating multi-jurisdiction issues in which she helps clients ensure that they are acting compliantly with all applicable laws. “I like hard, complicated work,” she said, smiling, “and it is fun to get to know and work with people all over the world.”
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