Lisa Linsky
McDermott Will & Emery
Lisa A. Linsky (She/Her) is a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, an international law firm where she is based in the NY office.
Lisa came to McDermott after an illustrious career as a prosecutor in the Westchester County, NY DA’s Office, where she co-lead the Special Prosecutions Division. There, Lisa investigated and prosecuted crimes involving domestic violence, child sexual and physical abuse, adult sex crimes, elder abuse and intimate partner and related homicides. She also taught courses in criminal law and procedure, and constitutional law at area colleges and universities.
At McDermott, Lisa created and heads a specialized practice group known as “SMRT”- [Institutional] Sexual Misconduct Response Team. SMRT consists of approximately a dozen attorneys who assist institutional clients with investigations and litigation defense involving allegations of sexual assault and abuse, including allegations that have been revived pursuant to various states’ Child Victims Acts and Adult Survivors Acts. Lisa also has extensive experience with complex commercial, trusts and estates, and civil rights litigation.
Lisa was the founder and Chair of McDermott’s LGBTQ+ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, which she started in 2005 when few Big Law firms were focusing on this type of DEI. Lisa put her organization on the map by elevating its stature as a diversity and inclusion leader within the legal profession. She was also McDermott’s first partner-in-charge of firmwide DEI. Lisa has received countless awards and recognitions for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ+ Community, including, but not limited to those from Crain’s New York Business, Chambers, the NYC Bar Association, the LGBT Bar Association, The Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Empire State Pride, and The NYC LGBT Community Center.
Lisa has served as outside general counsel to the Mattachine Society of Washington DC, a nonprofit organization committed to preserving LGBT American history. Lisa and her team of approximately 20 lawyers have represented the MSDC for over a decade. The team’s accomplishments include: filing an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court in the landmark marriage equality case, Hodges v. Obergefell; successfully representing the MSDC in a lawsuit against the Department of Justice for the agency’s failure to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests; publishing a white paper addressing the need for an apology by the federal government to the U.S. LGBT Community for the discrimination and animus that was exhibited toward LGBTQ+ people during the Lavender Scare of the mid-20th century; participating in a documentary produced by award-winning investigative journalist, Mike Isikoff, now with Yahoo!News, titled “Uniquely Nasty: The US Government’s War on Homosexuals”- a film that won the 2016 Edward R. Murrow award for Best Documentary; and the publication of a nationally-recognized white paper on Conversion Therapy titled, “The Pernicious Myth of Conversion Therapy: How Love in Action Perpetuated a Fraud on America.”
Lisa consults with business leaders, nonprofit and for-profit board members, and colleagues about how to foster equitable, inclusive and antiracist workplaces. She has served as an officer on several nonprofit boards, including Lambda Legal, the country’s oldest and largest LGBTQ+ civil rights legal organization and The LGBT Community Center of New York City.