Stephanie Leigh Kelly

Before law school, Stephanie Kelly worked with the Guardian ad Litem program in Durham, N.C., where she saw firsthand what was at stake for children moving through the court system. That experience never left her, and it’s a big part of why she chose family law.

She spent two years at a family law firm in Charlotte before joining Cordell & Cordell’s Raleigh office in 2012. In the years that followed, she earned board certification as a specialist in family law through the North Carolina State Bar, a designation held by fewer than 5% of attorneys in the state, requiring peer review and a written examination. Fewer than 300 lawyers in North Carolina carry this certification across all areas of law, and Ms. Kelly has maintained hers for more than eight years.

In 2019, she relocated to London to serve as Regional Managing Attorney and Solicitor for Cordell & Cordell’s first international office. She qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales after a year of written exams and rigorous skills testing. She returned to the Raleigh office in 2022 and is currently licensed in North Carolina and in England and Wales.

Divorce is hard. It’s exhausting, and at times you’ll want to give in just to make it stop, or dig in harder than you probably should. Stephanie Kelly says her job is to stay levelheaded when you can’t. “Part of my job is telling clients things they don’t want to hear: when they’re asking for too much, when they’re giving up too much, and what they can realistically expect either way.”

Honesty doesn’t mean detachment, though. “Divorce is hard enough. I want my clients to get through it with as little damage as possible, but if someone isn’t playing fair, I’m going to deal with that directly.