As sometimes happens, life has come full circle for Melissa Knight Atkins OPC ’01.
As an Upper School student, Atkins volunteered at the Whosoever Gospel Mission in Germantown, a longtime PC community partner, under the guidance of Jim Ballengee Hon. 1689, founder of the Center for Public Purpose. “I liked the guys at Whosoever,” she said. “They were trying to get their lives together and were just good people.”
Now, as a partner at the law firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, Atkins has chosen to commit her pro bono hours to providing free legal advice to Whosoever, which provides food, shelter, clothing, education and counseling to men in need.
Giving back and helping others was ingrained into Atkins and her sister by their parents. Her father worked for the Philadelphia Housing Authority as director of tenant services, and her mother was an administrative assistant for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. “My dad, especially, always had us involved in service,” Atkins recalled.
As a three-sport athlete, Atkins’ high school years were already crowded. She played soccer and lacrosse, switching to track her senior year, but where she really stood out was on the basketball court. The girls varsity basketball program was not as well established as it is today. The team used the Old Gym, relied heavily on parent and caregiver volunteers, and played a much shorter schedule. Nevertheless, they won the Inter-Ac Championship in 1997-98, Atkins’s freshman year, and she co-captained the team as a senior, averaging 24 points, 10 rebounds and four assists per game. Atkins graduated as PC’s all-time leading girls scorer with 1,535 points. (She now ranks third.)
A First-Team All-State selection, Atkins received a full athletic scholarship to the University of Miami, where she started more games than any other freshman. A Miami media guide called her “an extremely gifted shooter” and “one of the best defensive players on the roster.” Despite setbacks caused by two serious knee injuries, Atkins had perhaps her best game for the Hurricanes as a senior, when she scored 23 points and shot 5-6 from behind the three-point line in a win at Clemson.
After considering the possibility of playing basketball professionally overseas, Atkins decided instead to attend law school at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala. She returned to Philadelphia and private practice for two years but said that a turning point in her career came in 2013, when she joined the Philadelphia City Solicitor’s Office.
“It was life-changing for me to go there,” Atkins recalled. “It teaches you how to be an attorney.” What she means is that while law school may train students on technical points of the law and how to analyze a case, it does not teach them how to be an effective advocate or think on their feet. “In the city solicitor’s office, it’s sink or swim,” Atkins laughed. “On my first day, they handed me dozens of cases and I thought, okay, I’ve got to figure this out.” For more than five years, Atkins worked first in the Health and Adult Services Unit and then in the Labor and Employment Unit.
In 2018, Atkins moved in-house to insurance firm Chubb, where she represented some of the company’s clients in employment and discrimination cases. As a partner at Obermayer since April 2021, Atkins has developed a wide-ranging practice, advising private clients on matters ranging from employment leaves and discipline to sexual harassment investigations. She also advises various municipalities around the commonwealth in labor negotiations, including Whitemarsh Township, West Chester Borough and the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, among others.
The work has earned her national recognition, and she is frequently called upon for press comment. Just this year, Atkins has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and by The Washington Post and Financial Times about labor relations. City & State Pennsylvania named her to its Black Trailblazers Power List, writing, “With an unwavering dedication to labor and employment law, Atkins fearlessly advocates for employers in a multitude of spheres.”
As part of its commitment to pro bono work, Obermayer allows all its lawyers to dedicate 50 hours of work each year to a cause or organization of their choosing. Recalling the lessons her parents instilled and her service work at PC, Atkins chose to assist Whosoever.
“‘Good instruction is better than riches,’ rings true, especially as you get older and wiser,” Atkins said. “You really do start to look at the world differently. The education and the foundation that you receive as a student at PC is invaluable as you progress in your career and in life.”
– Mark Bernstein OPC '79