Pathways: Deborah Marshall ’82

"I would like to use the skills I have developed to give something back. In the next phase of my career, I plan to do more work around socially responsible investing." — Deborah Marshall ’82

“My first job after graduating from Northeastern was at a small firm in Boston where I had to figure things out on my own. When I had to file a complaint, for example, I hit the books for a starting point and worked with facts I had gotten from the client. My Northeastern experience gave me the confidence to succeed in that kind of environment.

“After that I earned an LLM from NYU and worked at two of the top firms in Silicon Valley before joining Howard Rice, a San Francisco-based corporate firm. I’m really proud of my firm’s leading role in challenging the ban on marriage for same-sex couples in California.

“I’m now a director and chair of the business department and a member of the firm’s management committee. My job involves strategic business counseling for a broad range of clients—everything from raising seed capital to IPOs and mergers and acquisitions.

“While some of my clients are multinational corporations, many are start-up entrepreneurs. I’ve done a lot of work in the life sciences field, for example—working with brilliant scientists who are finding new treatments for cancer or targeting chronic heart disease.

“Today, many new ventures are trying to address global warming and the energy crisis.  One of my clients is a wind power company that’s trying to find a way to use kites to generate electricity. Another is in the process of figuring out how to manufacture a hand-cranked battery to power small lanterns and phones and market it in the third world. It’s a fabulous job, and I’m always learning something new.”

Deborah’s Pathway