Careers

Founded in Washington, DC in 1962, and now with offices in Brussels, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Boulder, Keller and Heckman has developed a unique blend of legal and scientific expertise to guide clients skillfully through complex regulatory areas.

Keller and Heckman attorneys and staff serve our clients by combining scientific and technical expertise with outstanding legal talent. On staff to assist attorneys are scientists from the fields of chemistry, toxicology, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and industrial hygiene. This collaboration of law and science yields a thorough understanding of the issues clients face and the solutions that legal reasoning alone cannot offer.

Keller and Heckman offers comprehensive benefit plans. A summary of our benefits package includes:

• Group Health Plans, including Medical, Dental, Prescription Drug and Vision
• Short-Term and Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Supplemental Income Protection
• Life & Accident Death and Dismemberment Insurance
• Voluntary Term Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• 401(K) Profit Sharing Plan (employees are eligible to participate the 1st day of the following month after the date of hire)
• Pre-Tax Parking and Commuting Benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Discounted Gym Membership (Washington, DC office only)
• Relocation Expenses
• Bar Exam and Related Expenses

Keller and Heckman is managed by a committee of five partners spanning all of the firm's offices. The firm has advisory committees with specific functions, such as Recruitment, Professional Development and Training, Diversity, and Marketing, each of which make recommendations to the Management Committee.
 
Keller and Heckman provides associates with numerous opportunities to play a role in the administrative functions that guide the firm. Our associates have significant impact on shaping policies of the firm regarding the evaluation process, associate training, associate recruitment, benefits package, and other administrative issues. Associates serve on the Marketing, Library, Technology, Diversity, Green and Recruitment Committees. In addition, monthly associates meetings provide associates with a forum to address issues of particular concern to them.

While there are many reasons to consider Keller and Heckman for career employment, we believe our greatest strength is in our people. We are extremely proud of our continued growth, our global vision, sustained stability, and friendly atmosphere.
 
We encourage our professionals to know, respect, and appreciate each other. We work hard to provide the best advice and service to our valued clients while balancing outstanding work ethics and making time for family and friends. To facilitate the camaraderie we have come to enjoy, the firm sponsors a number of social and civic activities to bring everyone together, including happy hours, monthly cake days to celebrate employee birthdays, potluck luncheons and firm wide involvement in our charitable activities. We also sponsor a number of social events throughout the year including our families and guests, such as our firm picnic and our annual holiday party.

At Keller and Heckman, we recognize that our differences strengthen us as individuals and reinforce our abilities collectively. We pride ourselves on the fact that Keller and Heckman is a firm of well-rounded professionals who bring a diverse range of perspectives and backgrounds to our work – key to our ability to provide our clients with the best possible legal counsel. Diversity is a core value, and we are deeply committed to recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and advancing professionals of diverse backgrounds and experiences at Keller and Heckman.

Minority Corporate Counsel Association

As part of our overall commitment to enhancing diversity in the legal profession, we are a law firm member of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). Through our involvement with the MCCA and in other fora, we have participated in recruitment and networking opportunities with minority candidates. Because our legal practice often involves a sophisticated blending of law and science, we are able to attract talented students and lawyers of diverse backgrounds who are interested in a technology-based legal practice. We are honored to have recently earned the MCCA Approved 2023 Bronze Seal. MCCA Approved accreditation identifies exemplary development and solutions in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) in organizations. Since D&I is critical to the success of our firm, we are proud to continue to make sustainable progress towards D&I in our workplace, and we will continue to support initiatives and policies that improve D&I.

Mansfield Certification

Keller and Heckman is dedicated to building a more inclusive workplace by expanding diversity in leadership positions and beyond. Because of this, we are involved with Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Certification process, a diversity and inclusion certification that focuses on increasing diversity in leadership across participating firms.

More specifically, the Mansfield Certification is a science-based and data-driven process designed to ensure that all legal talent at participating firms have a fair and equal opportunity to advance, including historically underrepresented attorneys – women, LGBTQ+ lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, and/or racial/ethnic minority lawyers, who are considered for entry-level and lateral attorney job openings, leadership opportunities, equity partner promotions, and opportunities to connect with clients. Keller and Heckman is proud to have attained the 2022 – 2023 Mansfield Certification for midsize law firms and has committed to the next year-long initiative, which runs from July 2023 through July 2024. Read more about the certification here.

Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Diversity, in all aspects, is a key goal of the Firm, and we have established a Diversity and Inclusion Committee to actively foster and promote this goal. We welcome and encourage diversity within Keller and Heckman at all levels. By joining together people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, including people of color, women, and other groups, we enhance our creativity, our knowledge, and our ability to understand and respond to the needs of our diverse clientele.

The firm believes that the best way to develop and train new associates is to bring them into contact with clients at an early date and to allow them extensive responsibility for personally handling client matters. The firm's size and informal atmosphere afford associates ample opportunity to become involved in and significantly impact the legal practice and other aspects of life at Keller and Heckman. The firm also recognizes that the rigorous demands of legal practice must be balanced with time for family, friends, and personal interests. Keller and Heckman factors the need for this balance into the demands made on associates' time.

New associates are assigned to a primary practice area in the firm after consultation with that individual to ascertain his or her interests and are encouraged to develop expertise in that particular area. While associates have primary responsibility to their principle practice area, the firm is not rigidly departmentalized, and attorneys can often pursue their interest in other areas of the law depending on the needs of the firm.

Associates also benefit from the opportunity to work with our in-house scientific and technical staff who assist our attorneys in mastering the scientific issues involved in regulatory law and the technical aspects of our client's business.

From their first days at the firm, new attorneys experience the opportunity to work with firm clients on important issues affecting their industry. A partner is assigned to each associate to coordinate workload and assure an appropriate and controlled flow of assignments. In addition to practice area activities, the professional development and training of new associates are overseen by the Professional Development and Training Committee.

During the first year, new associates participate in a formal training program involving seminars on the day-to-day issues of being a lawyer. Topics include Management of Time and Workload, Staff Relations, Legal Writing, and Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentation Skills. There are workshops on specific legal skills to further the professional development of new associates. As the associate gains experience, the firm offers advanced training in such skills as marketing, client development, and negotiation. All attorneys are encouraged to participate in Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses and seminars.

Keller and Heckman is looking for law students who have demonstrated the intellectual ability, and particularly written and oral communication skills, to maintain the firm's tradition of high-quality legal representation. In addition, we want to identify candidates with the character and enthusiasm to make a commitment to outstanding client service. The firm also seeks students with broad interests and experience. Keller and Heckman offers competitive salary and benefits, a friendly, supportive environment, and a convenient location in downtown Washington, DC Our office building is located above the Metro Center Station.

Attorneys: Keller and Heckman welcomes experienced attorneys from the public sector, corporate offices, and private firms to complement our diverse and growing practice areas. We recruit through our Summer Associate Program recent law school graduates who have demonstrated academic excellence, strong writing skills, and display outstanding legal and analytical skills. In addition, we welcome applicants who have just completed a judicial clerkship. We offer a collegial atmosphere, extensive continuing training and professional development, and a Washington, D.C. location that is the center of regulatory action. Our attorneys are supported by an in-house staff of accomplished scientists and technical experts, a benefit that is unique to Keller and Heckman.

Scientific Staff: A unique feature of Keller and Heckman is our in-house staff of scientists and technical experts to support our practice areas in food and drug regulation, packaging, environmental, OSHA and telecommunications. Our scientific staff consists of chemists, biologists, and toxicologists.

Support Staff: In order to support our attorneys and scientists in delivering high-quality legal services to our clients, Keller and Heckman recruits top-notch paralegals and professional assistants, as well as accounting, IT, marketing, facilities, library, records, and administrative personnel. Our support staff members are encouraged to work closely with the professionals they support in a team environment. We are seeking exceptional talent and a willingness to become involved in providing outstanding legal service to our clients. Many of our support staff have extended tenure with the firm and appreciate the culture and close working relationships with the professional staff.

Our Summer Associate Program is a critical component in our recruitment process for new lawyers. It is designed to give law students an understanding of our firm's practice and to provide them with an opportunity to gain experience in the practice area that is of the most interest to them. Based on their particular area of interest, Summer Associates are assigned to one of the following designated practice groups: Environmental, Food and Drug, or Telecommunications. In addition, Summer Associates have the opportunity to request projects from practice areas outside of their designated concentration area. Our Summer Associates receive assignments from Partners, Counsel, and Associates, and have the opportunity to work directly with our Scientists. Our Summer Associate Program offers training and development seminars, as well as planned social events and outings in and around our Nation’s Capital.

Our Summer Associate Program activities are coordinated by our Recruitment Committee. Each Summer Associate is assigned a workload coordinator who provides guidance on procedures and background information for project work and helps to maintain an appropriate workload throughout the summer. One Senior Associate is assigned to serve as the Summer Advisor to meet regularly with and guide our Summer Associates during the 10-week Summer Associate Program.

Second-year law students are preferred, however, qualified first-year and third-year night students with a particular aptitude in Environmental, Food and Drug, or Telecommunications law also are encouraged to apply. To be considered for a Summer Associate position, please forward your application materials (cover letter, resume, transcript, and writing sample) to our Human Resources and Recruitment Manager, Jennifer Ireland, at careers@khlaw.com.