Jami McKeon

Jami began her career with Morgan Lewis in 1981. She has held various management positions, including membership on the firm’s Advisory Board. Immediately prior to assuming the chair, she led Morgan Lewis’s litigation practice, the firm’s largest group.

Shortly after Jami was first elected Chair in 2014, Morgan Lewis underwent a historic transformation when it welcomed more than 750 lawyers and professional staff from Bingham McCutchen. During her tenure, Morgan Lewis has sustained a particular focus on Asia, highlighted by the establishment of a major hub in Singapore and the opening or expansion of offices in China and Japan. The firm’s careful growth is a direct result of Jami’s commitment to delivering to clients the best possible service in whatever venue or region that is most optimal for them.

In 2018, the firm partnership unanimously reelected Jami to serve a second five-year term as Chair, beginning in October 2019. While Chair, Jami has continued her own legal practice in which she counsels Fortune 100 companies—particularly those in the financial services and technology industries—on complex litigation and investigations involving business disputes, fraud allegations, and class- and mass-action lawsuits. Jami represents some of the world’s foremost banks in regulatory and litigation matters.

Jami has put exceptional client service at the center of her work and her administration of the firm. She encourages the use of cutting-edge technology both to better serve clients and to facilitate the firm’s efficient administration, and she actively encourages all Morgan Lewis lawyers and professional staff to take a client-first approach in their work. A leader in establishing Morgan Lewis as one of a select group of firms managing large portfolios of national and global scope, Jami enthusiastically supports the use of alternative fee arrangements as a service to clients. Because of her deep dedication to clients, BTI Consulting Group named her a Client Service All-Star in 2017.

A long-time advocate of diversity within the legal industry, Jami launched ML Women, an initiative to harness the strength of the firm’s women through partnerships with clients and to create opportunities for women to come together around a shared industry or practice. Women also serve in senior leadership roles across Morgan Lewis, including on the Advisory Board and the Compensation Committee. They manage many of the firm’s practices and offices worldwide.

Both Jami and Morgan Lewis have long demonstrated a commitment to pro bono work and an appreciation of the critical role nonprofit organizations play throughout society, with a special emphasis on education and children’s issues. Jami is a frequent speaker and is active in various community service organizations, including the United Way, and she sits on the Board of Directors for the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Jami is also a member of several boards, including the Advisory Board of the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, the Penn Law Board of Advisors, the Board of Directors of Equal Justice Works, and the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia.

Among her numerous accolades, Jami has received the American Red Cross’s Lifetime Achievement Award and United Way’s Women’s Leadership Initiative Award. Other significant recent recognitions include a Special Achievement Award from the Financial Times, being honored as a Philadelphia Business Hall of Fame Icon by The Philadelphia Inquirer, and ranking among The Business Journals’ top 100 Influencers: Law. Jami also was named Attorney of the Year by The Legal Intelligencer and one of the 75 Most Outstanding Women Lawyers by The National Law Journal. Chambers describes her as “phenomenal” and a “great strategist.”