Participating Career Counselors
Bruce Blackwell
Bruce Blackwell, President and Founder of Career Strategies International, Inc., in White Plains, NY, has been advising attorneys on career transition issues for nearly twenty years. He brought to that discipline two decades of corporate marketing and management experience. Early in his career, he was an award-winning editor and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist for Gannett Newspapers. He later became Vice President of Marketing for a cable TV network before transitioning into the motion picture industry, where he was Director of Marketing and Corporate Affairs for New Line Cinema and Director of Publicity for MGM. While with Marketing Corporation of America, he consulted on marketing issues for companies like IBM, 3M, GE, Avon, Lorillard, and Burger King. Subsequently, he was on the U.S. Executive Committee for BASYS, the world’s largest broadcast automation software development firm. Before founding Career Strategies, he had been a Branch Manager and Senior Consultant for two of the leading career development firms in the Northeast. A noted author and lecturer on career issues, Mr. Blackwell has presented career transition seminars for the New Jersey Bar Association’s Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the FDIC, the State of Connecticut Legal Services division, and the New York County Lawyers Association. He has also been a panelist at career forums sponsored by The New York State Bar Association and American Lawyer Media, among others.
Cynthia Leeds Friedlander
Cynthia Leeds Friedlander is an executive coach, management consultant, career and communication coach, educator, lecturer, trainer, counselor, and group facilitator. Her areas of expertise include Communication, Executive Coaching, Professional Presence, Career Management/Transition, Leadership Development, Conflict Resolution, and Teambuilding. She has maintained a private career consulting and executive coaching practice since 1979, Cynthia Leeds Friedlander Consulting Services. Her consulting affiliations have included Partners International, Sirkin Associates and QED Consulting. She was a Vice President at The Strickland Group, from 1997 to 2000, providing career transition consulting, executive coaching, communication training, leadership development, team building, client management and a wide variety of organizational consulting, speaking presentation and seminar delivery. She was affiliated with Right Management Consultants, as a Senior Professional Services Consultant from 1985 to 1997. She has consulted extensively to law firms, legal associations, corporate legal divisions and general counsel departments, working with all levels including legal administrators, junior associates, associates, senior associates, partners, senior partners, managing partners, general counsels, heads of legal, and heads of business affairs. She has worked extensively with all levels of the workforce including CEO, Executive Director and President. Her consulting has included diverse business environments including entertainment, mass media, financial services, retail, manufacturing, consumer products, technology, legal, publishing, advertising, and marketing as well as various cultural, government, trade and educational organizations and associations.
She is a frequent presenter and seminar facilitator for diverse professional associations and businesses on the topics of effective communication, executive presence, and leadership. She has been a Counseling Associate and presenter for the Harvard Business School New York Career Assessment Seminars and a presenter for The Harvard Business School New York Club, has directed a career assessment program for Stanford Business School alumni and has been a Career Advisor for Wharton alumni. Her experience includes the Directorships of Career Services for the National Institute for the Psychotherapies and Yeshiva University, as well as coordinating the Ellen Morse Tishman Seminars at Hunter College of the City University of New York for college educated women with family responsibilities exploring re-entry into the workforce. She has also been an Adjunct Faculty member at Hunter College, City University if New York, teaching Adult Career Transition and Career Counseling in the Masters in Counseling program.
Her background includes extensive business experience in the fashion industry in both retail and wholesale manufacturing settings including Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Charles of the Ritz Cosmetics, Van Raalte and specialty boutiques in Virginia and North Carolina.
She has been a volunteer for Share, a support organization for women with breast and ovarian cancer where she ran the Friends and Family Group and has led groups for women with cancer who are addressing difficult work situations. She has also presented career seminars for inner city students at Jobs For Youth in New York City, a cooperative program with major Fortune 100 corporations as sponsors. She is an Advisory Board Member and Facilitator for the Corporate Workplace Program for The Children’s Aid Society.
She holds a Masters Degree in Counseling from Hunter College and a Bachelors Degree from the University of North Carolina, has studied at the University of Grenoble, France and speaks French.
Desiree Jaeger-Fine
Desiree Jaeger-Fine is the Director of International Programs at Brooklyn Law School. She was founder and principal of Jaeger-Fine Consulting, LLC, a career consultancy and training institute for international attorneys. Desiree sold her first company, a professional online network for international law students, only two years after its launch. She is a member of the New York bar and has authored over 120 articles and three books. Desiree was ranked in the top 5% of Amazon’s Business & Money Authors. She frequently lectures across the U.S. and around the world, including in Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Mexico, and Spain.
Desiree holds law degrees from both the University of Bonn (Germany) and Fordham Law School in New York from which she graduated cum laude with a master’s degree in Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law.
Linda E. Laufer
Linda E. Laufer is a career coach and counselor at Laufer Career Strategies. A former practicing attorney, Linda has 25 years of experience in coaching and counseling attorneys at all levels of experience, law students and other professionals on job search techniques and on career development and management skills.
Most recently, Linda served as an attorney development coach at Ropes & Gray for nearly six years. In that role, she coached associates on communication and presentation skills; executive presence; people, project and time management; organization and prioritization strategies; personal brand development, goal setting and implementation; and career path assessment. Prior to Ropes, she was the firmwide director of attorney development at Morgan Lewis & Bockius where, in addition to coaching associates, she also oversaw training, mentoring and upward feedback.
Her background also includes career services experience at Yale Law School, New York University School of Law and St. John’s University School of Law. She counseled law students and alumni on resumes and cover letters, interviewing and networking, career assessment, job search strategies, job offer evaluation and clerkship and public interest fellowship applications. Linda also developed and presented programs on job search topics.
Linda has been a speaker at many career-related programs at the New York City Bar Association, as well as law firms, law schools and other bar associations and professional organizations. She has also written extensively about career matters, including a weekly column, Crossroads, which appeared for eight years online for the New York Law Journal.
Linda began her career as a litigation associate at several large New York law firms where she focused on corporate, securities, copyright and trademark matters. She is a graduate of Cornell Law School and University at Buffalo. Linda has completed the Association for Training and Development coaching certificate. She is also a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Career Advancement and Management.
Adele Lemlek
Adele Lemlek is Managing Director, Coaching & Transition Services at Greiner Consulting Group. With almost 20 years of experience in the New York legal community, Adele provides career counseling to attorneys at all levels of seniority. She has a deep knowledge of legal market and broad experience in developing initiatives focused on career planning, skill development and professional transitions. Prior to joining us, she was the Director of Marketing for the New York City Bar Association where she re-branded and re-positioned the association to reach new demographics. Earlier, she held senior marketing roles for a number of top brand names in the legal services industry. A graduate of Boston University School of Law, she began her career as a tax litigator in New York City. She is admitted to the New York State Bar and is a member of the New York City Bar Association.
Carroll Welch
Carroll Welch is a career coach and counselor and a former practicing attorney. She is Principal and Founder of Carroll Welch Consulting (www.carrollwelchconsulting.com). Through her consulting work, she supports attorneys and other professionals at all stages of career planning and development, including in developing job search plans; transitioning back into the paid workforce; moving into new employment venues or areas of focus; resume drafting and revising; networking; interview preparation; goal setting; and leadership development. Carroll previously worked with Pace Law School’s re-entry program, New Directions for Attorneys, where she supported attorneys in their efforts to return either to legal practice or an alternative careers. She serves as the Alumni Career Consultant at Fordham Law School. Earlier in her career, she practiced commercial litigation and employment law at two major law firms. Carroll is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Advisory Committee for the New Lawyers Institute and is past chair and member of the Career Advancement and Management Committee. She is a member of the International Coach Federation, holds its Associate Certified Coach credential and is a Forbes Coaches Council member. She is a certified GetFive (formerly Five O’Clock Club) job search methodology coach and completed a certificate program in Executive and Organizational Coaching at New York University in 2013. She attended Johns Hopkins University for her undergraduate degree and the University of Virginia School of Law.
