Project Description
Nannette Kelleher
My full name is Nannette Rochelle Kelleher. And my title, I’m the supervising attorney at the Social Security Disability department. I work at Martin, Harding & Mazzotti, and I’m helping people who are disabled and looking to make a claim for their own social security benefits.
They pay into the system during all of the years that they work, and when they find themselves unable to work, they are scared because they didn’t expect it. Most of the people have been working since they were 15, 16 years old. They’re faced with going to the government and saying, “I need help.” And they think of it as an entitlement program, and it’s not. It’s money that they’ve paid into the system. It’s filled with red tape. It’s difficult, and they don’t know what to do. They turn to us and we help them through the process.
The people who work at my firm, they care about people. The people who you see on TV, on the commercials, on the buses, on the billboards, they’re at work every day working for people. And you see it every day, and I get to see it every day because I’m there working too. But that helps a lot, I think.
Being able to practice law allowed me to effect change for people that are my clients. And you know, you can’t control everything, but what you can do is you can work hard, make people feel comfortable in the scenario that they’re in. You can teach them and guide them throughout the process. And then you can build on your own experience level and use all of that experience to get what your client needs. That’s pretty great.
Nannette Kelleher – Supervising Attorney
Admitted in New York
Nannette Kelleher, a California native, was born and raised on the West Coast before settling in to the Capital Region area over 20 years ago. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Social and Political Sciences in 1994, cum laude, from California State University at Humboldt. She attended Albany Law School and graduated cum laude in 1997.
After law school, she was began practicing in a local firm exclusively in the area of Workers’ Compensation and Social Security. Thereafter, she was recruited to a civil litigation firm where she concentrated in personal injury litigation, including premises liability, products’ liability, municipal liability and medical malpractice and exposure claims. She quickly rose through the ranks and co-founded a civil litigation firm where she practiced for over a decade before coming full circle and joining Martin, Harding & Mazzotti’s workers’ compensation department.
Nannette was admitted to the New York State Bar and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in 1998. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Capital District Trial Lawyers Association, and the Federal Bar Association for the Northern District.
Ms. Kelleher resides in Albany County with her husband and three children. She enjoys the rich history of the area, hunting for antiques and traveling when she is able. She can also be found on the volleyball court or little league field when she is not negotiating and settling cases for her clients.