Michelle Vega: Touro's Finest

Michelle Vega spent more than six years as a litigation associate at Kelley Drye & Warren in New York before leaving the firm to care for a sick relative. When Vega started looking for a job a year later, she wanted to take her skills in a new direction.

A friend at a legal staffing company told her about an opening that offered management experience outside the law firm environment, but required a one-year stint in India. Vega was immediately intrigued and asked the friend to submit her résumé. When outsourcing company Mindcrest Inc. offered Vega a senior manager job in May 2008, she accepted and moved her life to Pune, India, by month's end.

"I like to travel and have always been interested in the world outside New York," said the 35-year-old Brooklyn native, who is still living in Pune.

As a senior manager at Mindcrest, Vega oversees the work of about 450 employees through 25 direct reports. Her work ranges from researching briefs in support of motions to drafting discovery requests to responding to subpoenas.

Vega, who graduated from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, said she enjoys using her litigation knowledge to guide the young Indian attorneys who do the company's legal research, document review and contract management work. Training Indian employees often means putting things in context for them. For instance, she might have to explain the relative value of a building on Park Avenue in New York by comparing it to an upscale street in Mumbai, Vega said.

http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/news/09/07/071609a.html