Kelley Drye’s New York Office Hosts Florence Kelley Luncheon

January 26, 2011

On January 26, the New York office hosted a luncheon and lecture on the historical connection between the Firm and Florence Kelley.

Florence Kelley is the mother of Nicholas Kelley, one of the name partners of Kelley Drye. She was a towering figure in the social reform movement and is widely recognized as one of the leading American Progressives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. In 1899, Florence Kelley was named the General Secretary of The National Consumers League which she led for 33 years. During her time as General Secretary of the National Consumers League, Florence Kelley wrote and saw the first minimum wage laws passed, the first limits on hours worked by women, the first federal maternal and child health care law, promoted the Meat Inspection Act of 1904 and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, and contributed the social data for the first Brandeis Brief” to the Supreme Court of the United States in Muller v. Oregon. In 1909 Florence Kelley was one of the founders of the NAACP. She was a friend and ally of W. E. B. DuBois.

Florence Kelley’s biographer, Professor Kathryn Kish Sklar and the Executive Director of the National Consumers League, Sally Greenberg presented a program on Florence Kelley’s accomplishments for working women and children, her relationship to Nicholas Kelley and some information on the current work on the National Consumers League.

The luncheon presented a unique opportunity for Kelley Drye attorneys to learn about Kelley Drye’s link to American history. In thanking Professor Sklar and Sally Greenberg for their presentation, partner Robert E. Crotty said, You have given us so many more reasons to be proud of Kelley Drye’s long standing association with Nicholas Kelley and his family.”