Chicago's Bright Lights Shine on BU Law Alumni Safeguarding ...

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’93’s Deb and Nigel Telman Are Chicago’s Rising Stars He’s the reserved one. She’s the talker. Together, they’re the complementary dynamic duo who made their mark on Boston University School of Law as dedicated officers in the Black Law Students’ Association (BLSA) in the early 1990’s. Since graduating in 1993, Deborah and Nigel Telman have continued to shine in the legal profession, earning a reputation as individuals committed to excellence, integrity and the advancement of women and minorities in the legal profession. Deborah Telman practices corporate law inhouse as counsel at The Boeing Company in Chicago, handling domestic and international legal issues related to the aerospace giant’s mergers and acquisitions. Her superiors love her for her ability to inspire genuine team spirit and solicit top-notch work from the attorneys she leads. Nigel serves as a partner at the venerable Sidley Austin international law firm. His practice involves, among other things, defending and counseling clients in employment-related disputes. His colleagues and clients are continually impressed by his strong litigation skills as well as his practical, business-oriented advice. At night, on weekends and during countless Blackberry and e-mail moments in between, the two hold down an even more important job: raising their eight-year-old twin sons Nigel II and Nicholas. No one who knew Deborah and Nigel while at Boston University is surprised by their success. “They exuded the kind of steady confidence that made me sure I’d see their names in lights someday,” says Fran Miller, (’65) a favorite former professor. 4 | The Record | Fall 2007
As two of only a handful of black students at the school in the early 1990’s, they met at a law school party during their first year and soon discovered they had lived parallel lives. They grew up only one town away from each other on Long Island—Deborah in Uniondale, and Nigel in Hempstead. They later discovered that Deborah attended her high school prom with Nigel’s best friend, and at Penn, she pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha—the sister sorority to Nigel’s Alpha Phi Alpha at Cornell. Before coming to law school, they both worked on Wall Street as analysts, Deborah for Morgan Stanley and Nigel for J.P. Morgan. The two also benefited from supportive upbringings in which race was never seen as an obstacle. As a child, Nigel lived first in London, and then in his parents’ native Guyana, where it was routine for people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds to hold positions of leadership and power. “As a result of that exposure, I placed a high value on diversity and understood that I could accomplish anything in life with hard work,” Nigel says. As for Deborah, having a family that stressed “the value of hard work, God, education and pride in being African American,” she felt free to run with her natural gifts. “Their personalities,” says Donald Prophete (’92), “simply will not let them deviate from doing what is right.” It wasn’t until their second year in law school, however, that the two paired up—at first only as moot court partners for the Frederick Douglass competition that fall. A dynamic team, they won Best Respondent’s Brief and Best Overall Brief nationally. Nigel took best oralist nationally, and Deborah did the same for the Northeast region. By the holidays, they were meeting over break on Long Island, talking about more than the finer points of the law. “Deborah was very smart,” says Nigel. “She had leadership skills I admired. She was fun. We could talk for hours.” Echoes Deborah: “Nigel was intelligent and thoughtful before he spoke. I loved that rigor. He was also charming and funny.” By their third year, they were revitalizing BLSA at the School, Deb serving as president, and Nigel serving as vice president. Deborah helped improve relationships between black students and alumni by resurrecting the annual BLSA dinner, inviting back black alumni to reconnect with the School. The pair also convinced the School to make the Frederick Douglass Competition an officially sanctioned Moot Court Team. Nigel sat on BU Law’s admissions committee, which gave him the opportunity to advise the admissions director on the significant value increased diversity would have on the overall law school experience. Along the way, the pair became known as “Mr. and Mrs. BU.” To make it official, in their third year, Nigel proposed to Deborah in front of a table full of fellow BU Law students they were coaching as the School’s official team at that year’s Frederick Douglass Moot Court competition. A year-and-a-half later, they married. After graduating, the couple headed for Chicago, Nigel to Freeborn & Peters LLP, and Deborah at first to Hopkins & Sutter. Nigel gained experience in securities litigation and then employment litigation, and made partner in 2000. Deborah found her niche after moving to Winston & Strawn LLP in 1996, where she represented high-profile clients on mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions. She made partner in 2001. In 2002, both Telmans held hands and jumped, Nigel to Sidley Austin, and Deborah to Boeing. “I decided to go Fall 2007 | The Record | 5
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