Judi O’Kelley has served since 2017 as the Chief Program Officer for the National LGBTQ+ Bar, in which she leads a broad range of programmatic initiatives. Judi’s work at the Bar includes building the annual Lavender Law® Conference program, supporting the Bar’s state and local Bar affiliate program and our law school affiliate program, developing resources for LGBTQ+ law students and lawyers, supporting the work of the Bar’s and NCLR’s Family Law Institute®, and overseeing the Bar’s policy work.

Judi brings over thirty years of legal and political experience working for equality within the LGBTQ+ community. While in law school, she worked against anti-gay ballot initiatives in Oregon; after graduating and entering private practice, she moved to Georgia and worked on behalf of local and national LGBTQ+ groups as a pro bono attorney, drafting and lobbying for successful non-discrimination protections and domestic partnership benefit programs for several Georgia municipalities, including Atlanta and Athens. In 2004, she served as President and Campaign Chair for the campaign for the Athens, Georgia area in opposition to Georgia’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions, and continued grass-roots organizing and local political work after the campaign. Judi also was the lead plaintiff from 2004-2006 in the case of O’Kelley v. Perdue, in which Lambda Legal, the Georgia ACLU, and the law firm of Alston & Bird sought to strike down Georgia’s anti-marriage amendment. Judi then spent nearly twelve years on the staff and in senior management of Lambda Legal in roles ranging from Southern Regional Director, to Director of Life Planning, to Deputy Director of Development, to Director of Leadership.

Judi received her B.A. from Colorado College in 1990. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1996, she served as a law clerk for Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and practiced appellate and employment law in Atlanta for Jones Day and two boutique law firms, before joining Lambda Legal in 2006.

Paul is the LGBTQ+ Bar’s Chief Development Officer, in which he is responsible for all of the LGBTQ+ Bar’s fundraising initiatives. Under Paul’s leadership, the LGBTQ+ Bar has significantly increased its conference fundraising as well as expanded its individual and institutional giving programs. Paul has substantial experience in fundraising, LGBTQ+ non-profit leadership, and law.

Prior to this position, Paul served as the Director of Development for Reaching Out MBA, another LGBTQ+ nonprofit, as well as the Director of External Affairs here at the LGBTQ+ Bar. In his prior role at the LGBTQ+ Bar, Paul was responsible for maintaining relationships with the organization’s internal and external constituents, which included corporations and law firms, as well as overseeing the Bar’s membership efforts. In that role, Paul was at one point also responsible for much of the organization’s programmatic initiatives, including Lavender Law® Conference & Career Fair planning and overseeing the Law Student Congress. Paul has experience speaking on a number of issues related to LGBTQ+ rights and the law.

Paul is an attorney who previously worked with students in higher education, having served as the Assistant Director of the Law Career Development Office at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and, before that, practiced law for two litigation firms in the Baltimore area.

Paul received his J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law and an undergraduate degree from Muhlenberg College.

Mari Nemec serves as Advocacy Counsel at the Nat’l LGBTQ+ Bar, where she provides substantive support to the Bar’s advocacy work, including monitoring and responding to legislative and judicial issues impacting the LGBTQ+ legal community and facilitating the Bar’s programmatic initiatives. She serves as the Bar’s liaison with the Law Student Congress and as a Co-Chair of the Bar’s Judicial Nominations and Executive Appointments Committee.

Mari most recently joined the Nat’l LGBTQ+ Bar in the summer of 2023 as the Bar’s first ever Policy Counsel, but her history with the organization goes back nearly a decade. She first joined the staff in the summer of 2017 as an intern, before serving as as Manager of Public Affairs. In 2019, she left the Bar to attend law school, but remained involved in the organization’s work by serving in the Bar’s Law Student Congress first as Secretary and then for two years as Co-Chair. While in law school, she also clerked in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, worked at Step Up to Justice, a local legal-aid organization in Tucson, Arizona, and served as a Congressional Intern to Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick. After graduating in 2022, Mari served as a Dorot Fellow at Alliance for Justice, preparing reports on federal judicial nominees and monitoring the federal courts.

Mari received her J.D. from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law and her B.A. from the College of William and Mary. In her free time, Mari enjoys reading, hiking, trying new foods, and joyfully following the whims of her beloved cattle dog, Miss Matilda Fig.

Nicole joined the LGBTQ+ Bar in November 2021 as the Development Manager and is responsible for cultivating donor relationships and expanding the Bar’s fundraising initiatives. She brings more than a decade of experience at nonprofit organizations, where she developed partnerships with donors and sponsors, produced successful fundraising events, and created engaging communications pieces. Outside of work, she loves singing, baking, and drinking strong coffee. She received her MPA in Nonprofit Management from Baruch College and her B.A. from the State University of New York College at Oneonta.

Logan joined the LGBTQ+ Bar staff in January 2019, working as its Operations Associate. In this role, he performed administrative tasks, maintained customer service with the organization’s members, and assisted with advocacy programming.

He currently works as the Development Associate, assisting sponsors and donors and ensuring the membership of the Bar is vibrant and opportune. Logan brings prior nonprofit and administrative experience to the team, as well as passion for LGBTQ+ equality. He worked in retail for four and a half years, learning immensely about the human condition. He wants a career devoted to justice for all marginalized people, and puts his professional talent into causes he is passionate about.

Logan was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended the University of Louisville. He earned two bachelor’s degrees, graduating in 2017 with a B.S. in Geography and a B.A. in History. Logan is a lover of drag artists, maps, spicy food, cats, pop divas, and progressive politicians.