Janet Langford Kelly
Senior Vice President, Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
ConocoPhillips

Janet Langford Kelly is senior vice president, Legal, general counsel and corporate secretary for ConocoPhillips. She has more than 30 years of experience at private law firms and corporations.

Kelly joined ConocoPhillips in 2006 as deputy general counsel and corporate secretary. Previously, she was a partner at Zelle, Hoffman, Voelbel, Mason and Gette and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law. She also previously served as Kmart Corporation’s senior vice president, chief administrative officer and chief compliance officer; as Kellogg Company’s executive vice president of corporate development and administration, general counsel and secretary; and as Sara Lee Corporation’s senior vice president, secretary and general counsel.

Kelly began her career as a law clerk for the Honorable James Hunter III of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She was later an associate with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and a partner at Sidley & Austin.

Kelly serves as a trustee for Columbia Funds and is Chairman of the Houston Grand Opera Endowment Board. She also serves on the boards of directors for the Houston Grand Opera, Yellowstone Park Foundation and the National Association of Corporate Directors Texas TriCities Chapter.

She has received several awards, including the Legends in Law Award from the Burton Awards for Legal Achievement, Inside Counsel’s Anastasia D. Kelly Award, and the Houston Business Journal’s Outstanding General Counsel award. Kelly was named one of Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women of 2013 by Houston Woman Magazine.

Kelly received a bachelor’s degree in history, with honors, from Grinnell College in 1979, and a juris doctorate from Yale University in 1983.