It’s an hour and a half commute each way from Deanna Kirkpatrick’s Connecticut home to the Lexington Avenue offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell next to Grand Central Station in New York City.
But for this self-described working mom with a husband, 9-year-old daughter and 15-yearold son, it’s all worth it.
“My life is busy and stressful at times but I am having a lot of fun,” she said.
Kirkpatrick, a gold medallist from the class of 1989, arrived in New York City soon after her graduation from Western Law and planned to stay for just a few years. Some 25 years later, she has never looked back.
She received both her law degree and MBA from Western and has carved an impressive career at Davis Polk, one of the pre-eminent Wall Street law firms.
Kirkpatrick is a partner and the finance chair, one of the most senior management positions within the firm, allowing her to also use the skills she gained from her MBA.
Kirkpatrick says there is a certain energy associated with accepting added responsibilities. Finance chair is a role that many firms might view as traditionally male but, according to Kirkpatrick, Davis Polk has been very supportive of its female lawyers.
“I think the key difference between Davis Polk and many other major law firms is the opportunities it provides women to allow them to grow into leaders,” she said.
In fact, Davis Polk was one of the first Wall Street firms to elect a woman partner and has always had among the highest percentage of women partners of all AmLaw 100 firms.
“There are advantages to being a woman in what, at times, can be a male-dominated profession in that being different doesn’t make you less effective. In fact, sometimes it can even make you more effective,” she said.
The recipient of the 2013 Euromoney LMG Americas Women in Business Law Award in Capital Markets, Kirkpatrick is a senior member of the firm’s Capital Markets Group and has an enviable list of clients including: Cigna, BATS Global Markets, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and many Fortune 500 companies.
Her practice includes IPOs, and equity and debt offerings, as well as advising on securities law and corporate governance issues. She also works on complicated, cutting-edge transactions with people all over the world.
Her recent deals have included the IPOs of RE/MAX, where she served as underwriters’ counsel, and Health Insurance Innovations, where she represented the company. “In my issuer-side practice, my clients represent a variety of industries, with a particular emphasis on healthcare,” she said. “On the underwriter side, I advise major investment banks on debt and equity offerings, as well as other securities law related matters.”
“There’s definitely no time to be bored,” Kirkpatrick acknowledges. “Deals get done quickly and I may jump from an IPO to a convertible offering to an equity offering and back. Working with, and getting to learn about, so many different companies and clients keeps it interesting and fun.”
She credits professor Peter Mercer, her contracts professor, for piquing her interest in and ultimately her career in corporate law.
“Way back then my only sense of what it was like to be a lawyer was from watching Susan Dey in the TV show L.A. Law,” she laughs. “But professor Mercer gave me the insight to understand what it was like to be a corporate lawyer.”
“I’ve had a wonderful platform from which to work on some of the most complex and interesting legal matters throughout my career. I’ve had and continue to have extraordinary opportunities.”
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