Meet Eleanor (Elli) Kerlow, Esq., Senior Public Relations Manager, Hunton & Williams LLP
"Be strategic. Make recommendations to your attorneys that match their business agendas. Speak up, management wants to hear your ideas. Be helpful to your attorneys and to your teammates. Be yourself."
- Elli Kerlow
Background: Attorney, journalist, Internet editor, author, marketing and public relations professional.
Business Profile: Elli often shares her insight as a public speaker at LMA chapter programs and national conferences. At this year's annual LMA conference in Denver, Elli's presentation with Cari Brunelle, Vice President of Jaffe Associates, focused on how to effectively communicate with the media during a crisis.
Among Elli's most prized awards are the 2010 PR News Legal PR award for media coverage; the 2007 LMA Your Honor Award taking first place for media relations; and the 2005 PR News Legal PR award winner for Best In-house PR Professional.
A graduate of the George Washington University School of Law, Elli wrote Poisoned Ivy: How Egos, Ideology and Power Politics Almost Ruined Harvard Law School (St. Martin's Press, 1994). She has also utilized her journalistic skills serving as the senior editor at Legal Times, and the executive editor at Counsel Connect, an AmLaw online service.
Elli has been working as a marketing professional since 1999 at firms such as, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP.
Outside the Office: Where the fun begins for Elli: Underwater. She is an avid scuba diver, engaged with marine biology and conservation. Elli is also a longtime children's soccer coach.
Beltway Banter: "Elli was ahead of her time," said Lucy Jones, current Director of Business Development for the Association of Corporate Counsel. Lucy worked with Elli during the early 1990s while Elli was an Executive Editor at Counsel Connect and Lucy was at LexisNexis which partnered at the time with ALM on the Counsel Connect project. It was basically the precursor to Facebook and LinkedIn.
Attorneys utilized Counsel Connect's cutting edge on-line community allowing them to research and post messages on common legal questions, as well as gain access to attorney profiles before law firm websites were popular. Lucy adds, "Elli brings both her literary and legal background to her profession."
Profile written by Marguerite G. Downey, director of communications and client services at Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg LLP