Linda Yayoi Kelso is a retired partner with Foley & Lardner LLP. Before retirement, she was chair of the Securities Practice and a member of the Transactional & Securities Practice. She counseled business clients in corporate and partnership organization, finance, and securities. Linda worked on numerous public and private offerings, represented public companies in connection with their periodic reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission, represented REITs, formed hedge funds, and handled business combinations for public and private entities.

Linda received her law degree from the University of Florida College of Law (J.D., with high honors, 1979), where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as tax editor of the University of Florida Law Review. She is also a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (M.A., 1971) and received her undergraduate from Stanford University (A.B., with great distinction, 1968), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Linda was among 114 attorneys nationwide who made BTI Consulting Group’s coveted Client Service All Star Team for 2005. This honor is bestowed upon individual attorneys who deliver the best client service according to corporate counsel interviewed at Fortune 1000 and other large organizations. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® (2007-2010) and Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers (2005-09). In both 2005 and 2006, Linda was recognized as one of Florida’s Legal Elite by Florida Trend™ magazine. In 2007, she served as general counsel to the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.