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Latonia Haney Keith is Pro Bono & Community Service Counsel at the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in the Firm’s Chicago office.
Latonia works closely with the Chair of the Firm’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee and Firm leadership to lead and manage all aspects of the Firm’s pro bono, community service and charitable giving initiatives, both in the United States and abroad. She focuses on developing new pro bono initiatives, encouraging pro bono participation across the Firm, fostering deeper relationships with pro bono referral agencies, and establishing pro bono and community service partnerships with Firm clients. Latonia also provides legal services directly to a diverse range of pro bono and community service organizations.
Latonia is a member of the Teen Programs Committee of the Step Up Women’s Network, which is dedicated to developing programs and events promoting health and wellness, leadership and self-esteem, and career and college development for underserved teen girls. She serves on the board of the Montessori Academy of Chicago’s Scholarship Foundation and is an active volunteer for the Fairygodmother Foundation, an organization committed to granting final wishes to terminally ill adults.
Latonia served as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law, where she co-taught Structuring Financial Transactions, a course focused on teaching the practical aspects of transactional law, such as drafting, negotiating and building client relationships. She has also acted as an attorney coach to high school students at Hirsch Metro High School of Communications and Roberto Clemente Community Academy competing in the Circuit Court of Cook County’s annual Citywide Mock Trial Competition.
Prior to joining McDermott, Latonia practiced as a securitization and structured finance associate at a leading firm in Chicago, where she represented multinational corporations, commercial banks, commercial paper and medium term note conduits, insurance companies, hedge funds and investment banks in a variety of complex transactions.
Latonia graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was a research assistant to Professor Laurence H. Tribe and Professor Charles Ogletree. She was also an editor of and symposium co-chair for the Harvard Law Review. While in law school, Latonia authored two articles entitled Privatization of Federal Indian Schools, 116 Harv. L. Rev. 1455 (2003) and Brown’s Potential, Still Unrealized, 115 Harv. L. Rev. 2034 (2002). Following graduation, Latonia clerked for the Honorable Judith Wilson Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Prior to law school, she worked for Sprint Corporation, where she managed an international audit of a major Sprint joint venture and the development of complex, interactive business simulations focused on investment evaluation, pricing, operations and portfolio management.
Education:
Harvard Law School, J.D. (cum laude), 2003
University of Iowa, BBA (summa cum laude), 1997 | 