Jami McKeon, chair of Morgan Lewis
Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business has named Jami McKeon, chair of Morgan Lewis, as its 2025 Business Leader of the Year.
McKeon, a pioneer in the legal industry, is the first woman chair in Morgan Lewis’s 150-plus-year history and is the architect of trailblazing initiatives that helped establish Morgan Lewis’s reputation as a global elite law firm. As chair, McKeon has led more than 4,000 lawyers, specialists, and professional staff across four continents through transformational growth and some of the most pivotal moments in recent history. McKeon’s leadership has helped earn Morgan Lewis consecutive years in the top 5 of The American Lawyer’s A-List and 23 consecutive years on BTI Consulting Group’s Client Service 30 list.
Her tenure has been defined by sustained global growth and technological innovation, including the development of proprietary technology tools and a strategic partnership with Thomson Reuters to forge generative AI solutions that will shape the future of the legal industry. Complementing these efforts, McKeon has championed several initiatives centered on employee well-being and community engagement—most notably the market-leading ML Well program. These priorities have contributed to Morgan Lewis being named #2 on Vault’s 2026 “Best Law Firms to Work For” list for the second consecutive year, as well as earning #1 rankings in 12 categories, including Quality of Work, Technology & Innovation, Training, Associate/Partner Relations, Overall Inclusion, Pro Bono, and Mentorship and Integration of Laterals.
McKeon sits on the boards of Equal Justice Works, the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center. She is also a member of the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession Advisory Board, the Penn Carey Law Board of Advisors and the advisory board of the Utah Royals Football Club.
McKeon has been honored with numerous prestigious awards, including the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the American Red Cross Lifetime Achievement Award, the United Way Women’s Leadership Initiative Award, the Financial Times North America Innovative Lawyers Special Achievement Award, and Corporate Counsel’s Innovative Law Firm Leader Award. She has also been recognized among the top 20 most innovative law firm leaders of the past 20 years by the Financial Times, named to Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Leaders list, received the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s Paradigm Award, and has been recognized among the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Power 100: Most Influential Business Leaders for 11 consecutive years.
McKeon will receive LeBow’s Business Leader of the Year award on November 6, 2025 at a ceremonial event held in her honor. Proceeds from the event will support the creation of a new endowed research fellow in the college’s Raj & Kamla Gupta Governance Institute.
Established in 1954 by business student George Ross, who years later as an investment banker became the 35th annual honoree, the Business Leader of the Year award is one of the most prestigious honors in the Greater Philadelphia region. Past recipients include H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest, Philadelphia entrepreneur, newspaper publisher, and philanthropist; Denis O’Brien, former president and CEO of PECO Energy Co. and executive vice president of Exelon Corp., who recently served as Drexel’s interim president; David L. Cohen, senior executive vice president of Comcast Corp.; Eileen McDonnell, chairman and chief executive officer of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company; and Judith M. von Seldeneck, founder and chair of the Diversified Search Group.