Dennis M. Kelleher

Dennis Michael Kelleher
Born (1957-08-12)August 12, 1957
Brockton, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Occupation Lawyer

Dennis Michael Kelleher (born August 12, 1957) is President and CEO of Better Markets, Inc., an independent nonpartisan(?) nonprofit organization based in Washington DC that promotes the public interest in the financial markets. He is an honor graduate of Harvard Law School and Brandeis University, after serving four years active duty in the United States Air Force as a firefighter in the 1970s. Kelleher was then a partner at the New York based international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, resigning from the partnership on two occasions to serve in three senior staff positions in the United States Senate.

Personal background

Dennis Michael Kelleher was born August 12, 1957 in Brockton, Massachusetts. He lived in Auburn, Massachusetts, until his parents divorced, when he moved with his mother to the Great Brook Valley public housing project in Worcester, Massachusetts. During this time, he benefited from a number of government programs, including food stamps, free school lunches, surplus government food and welfare support (then known as AFDC: Aid to Families with Dependent Children). In a campaign announcement in the Arlington Advocate newspaper in 1992, Kelleher said receiving government assistance “is nothing to be ashamed of; we should be proud that we live in a society that reaches out to, cares for and assists people in times of need, economic dislocation or personal crisis.”

Kelleher attended St. Peter’s High School in Worcester, Massachusetts for two years. As a sophomore, he shared first place in an essay contest sponsored by the Catholic Relief Service (CRS). The prize was to visit the CRS sites in Nicaragua, which suffered from a devastating earthquake in December 1972. With nuns and CRS officials, Kelleher traveled the country from the capital Managua to Leon and Matagalpa and witnessed international aid organizations set up and distribute vital assistance in times of crisis and peril.

He moved to Spencer, Massachusetts, where he graduated from David Prouty High School in 1976. While attending high school, Kelleher attended classes at night, obtaining certifications in CPR and as an Emergency Medical Technician – Ambulance (EMT-A). During high school, he was a volunteer on the Spencer Ambulance and Rescue Squad. He also received his certification as a NAUI and PADI SCUBA diver in October 1975 and as an Advanced NAUI SCUBA diver in May 1976. Kelleher was also a member of the Greater Worcester Underwater Rescue and Recovery Squad.

Military service

While a high school senior, Kelleher enlisted in the United States Air Force. He entered active duty on September 8, 1976 and attended basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where, upon completion, he received an Honor Graduate ribbon on October 21, 1976. He then attended Fire Protection Specialist training school at the Chanute Air Force base in Rantoul, Illinois, graduating December 22, 1976, and entered service as a firefighter. In March 1977, Kelleher received a certificate in Fire and Arson Investigation at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He became a CPR instructor on October 10, 1977.

In May 1978, Kelleher graduated from Firefighter Rescue school at Chanute Air Force base. He received the Air Force Good Conduct Medal on September 7, 1979 and was appointed a noncommissioned officer in the grade of sergeant on March 1, 1980. Kelleher was honorably discharged from active duty on August 22, 1980. He completed his military service in the inactive reserve on April 23, 1982.

Education

While serving in the Air Force, Kelleher attended Middlesex Community College at night in Bedford, Massachusetts, and, immediately upon concluding active duty in August 1980, matriculated at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Kelleher was a Brandeis University nominee for the Truman Scholarship for academic excellence and commitment to public service in 1981. He received a Criminal Justice Graduate Research Scholarship from the National Institute of Sentencing Alternatives in 1982. He was a featured speaker at an English Graduate Colloquium in 1983. Kelleher received an undergraduate Honors Research Scholarship and was a selected delegate at the Department of Defense Assembly on Innovation at the Air Force Academy in 1984.

Kelleher worked throughout college, including as a legislative aide to Massachusetts State Senator Carol Amick, when he drafted legislation on traffic safety, cable television and criminal justice matters. He was also a plainclothes retail security officer at a shopping mall outside of Boston, Massachusetts and worked for an ambulance company.

Kelleher was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in 1984 with Highest Honors in English and American Literature and in Politics from Brandeis University. He was awarded the I. Milton Sacks Politics Award and the Lester Martin Legal Studies Award for his senior honors thesis “Divining and Defining Meaning in Law and Literature: Strategies of Interpretation.” Upon graduation, he attended Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude in 1987.

Other activities

Kelleher has participated in a number of civic, charitable and political activities. He was a longtime volunteer at and founder of the annual gift drive for the then 1,100 residents at the Walter Fernald State School for the institutionalized mentally handicapped in Waltham, Massachusetts. He was a volunteer at and a member of the Advisory Board of My Sister’s Place, an advocacy center for homeless women and children in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as a volunteer at Women’s Lunch Place, a day-shelter for homeless women and children, also in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Germaine Lawrence School, a residential treatment center for adolescent girls in Arlington, Massachusetts.

An active alumnus at and supporter of Brandeis University, he was a member of the Board of Directors for the Alumni Association from 2006 to 2008.

He has also participated in a number of local, state and national political campaigns, including the Presidential campaigns of Senator Gary Hart (D-CO) in 1983–84 and again in 1987. Kelleher was elected to two four-year terms (1988-1996) to the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee from the fourth Middlesex District (Arlington, Billerica, Burlington, Lexington, Woburn). While a member of the state party, Kelleher was Chairman of the Rules Committee and a member of the Executive Committee, which was then under the leadership of Steven Grossman.

Legal career and government service

Kelleher was a summer associate at the international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 1986 while attending Harvard Law School and joined the firm as an associate upon graduation in 1987. His legal practice focused on corporate, securities, financial markets, corporate conduct, regulatory, accounting and employment related litigation and legal advice as well as mergers and acquisitions. He represented numerous clients in regulatory investigations and before regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission in particular. He also conducted numerous internal corporate investigations on behalf of clients who discovered or suspected wrongdoing.

Skadden, Arps promoted Kelleher to partner in early 1996, but he resigned shortly thereafter to join Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's (D-MA) staff in the United States Senate in Washington D.C. He became Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel to what was then known as the Labor and Human Resources Committee, later renamed to Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

At the Committee, Kelleher worked on economic issues, the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Food and Drug Administration reform, Fair Labor Standards Act, MedGuide legislation, patent extension reform, FAA reauthorization, union and labor provisions, among other issues and bills.

Kelleher returned to Skadden, Arps and his securities and financial markets litigation practice in 1997 until he resigned his partnership for the second time in early 2004. He returned to Washington as Legislative Director for Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who was also the Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Kelleher had a top secret security clearance. In 2005, Kelleher joined the staff of Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who was Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, as his Chief Counsel and Senior Leadership Advisor until he resigned in September 2010. Throughout his Senate service, Kelleher had responsibility for a broad portfolio of domestic and international matters, which also resulted in travel to Iraq, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and elsewhere.

His Senate service for Senators Mikulski and Dorgan spanned the 109th, 110th and 111th Congresses, the last, which had to deal with the worst financial crash since 1929 and the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s, is viewed as the most productive since President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society in 1965-1966.

Better Markets

Kelleher left the Senate staff in September 2010 to start Better Markets, which was founded earlier that year by Michael Masters. Better Markets (www.bettermarkets.com) is a nonpartisan, independent, 501c3 nonprofit organization that promotes the public interest in the capital and commodity markets, primarily in the US, but also in Europe and elsewhere. It focuses on the rulemaking and implementation of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by President Obama in July 2010, as well as on public advocacy, litigation and research on financial markets and financial reform. As President and CEO, Kelleher leads a staff of 12 in DC, 2 in Brussels and 1 in London.

Kelleher’s work at Better Markets has been profiled in the New York Times (“Facing Down the Bankers”) and by the PBS show Need to Know (“Braking the Banks”). He was also featured in Frontline’s award-winning inside story of the global financial crisis (“Money, Power and Wall Street”), as well as in the German and French public television documentaries on the global financial collapse. He also frequently speaks on financial matters and is widely quoted in US and international media. Kelleher has also testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on a wide range of topics. He has testified twice before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, on the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and on the Reauthorization of the Commodities Exchange Act. He has testified twice before the House Financial Services Committee, on the impact of the Dodd Frank law and on the Volcker Rule ban on proprietary trading. He also testified once before the House Natural Resources Committee on commodity prices and markets.

Better Markets is headquartered in and does its work primarily in the District of Columbia where the heads of the 30 most active trade groups took home an average of $2.34 million in 2012 including organizations that are routinely on the other side of issues Better Markets’ advocates for, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (CEO $4,750,000), Securities Industry & Financial Markets Assoc. (CEO $2,970,000), American Bankers Assoc. (CEO $2,300,000), Business Roundtable (CEO $1,800,000), Financial Services Roundtable ($1,790,000), Managed Funds Assoc. (CEO $1,780,000). President and CEO of Better Markets, Kelleher earned $342,600 in reportable compensation in 2012 and $284,975 in 2011. The average profits per partner in 2011 at Skadden, Arps were reported to be $2,480,000.

One prominent financial markets commentator suggested in a column in the New York Times that President Obama should nominate Kelleher to be Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bar admissions

Kelleher is a member of the bar of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. He is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Federal District Court of Massachusetts, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia, the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court.

Interviews

References

External links

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