Ms. Catherine Zejnullahu is Associate General Counsel at Kelmar and has experience in the field of unclaimed property since 2007. She holds a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School, a Graduate Certificate in the Program for Women in Politics and Government from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Massachusetts at North Dartmouth. Ms. Zejnullahu is a practicing member of the Massachusetts Bar since 2004. 

Ms. Zejnullahu joined Kelmar in 2007 and is responsible for all corporate and regulatory legal matters, including risk management, organizational compliance, and advisory services. She serves as Kelmar’s Privacy Officer, Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, and is a member of Kelmar’s Incident Response Team. Ms. Zejnullahu provides legal guidance to Kelmar’s Executive Management and senior personnel on all matters inclusive of corporate governance and organizational compliance. She assists in drafting Kelmar’s responses to state solicitations, and negotiates Kelmar’s state contracts and renewals. Ms. Zejnullahu also oversees Kelmar’s contract compliance initiatives, assists in developing and implementing corporate controls, and oversees Kelmar’s SOC, SSAE-18, and ISO-27002 third party audits.

Additionally, Ms. Zejnullahu serves as a central figure and key resource for Kelmar’s Compliance Services. In that capacity, she advises Kelmar’s exam teams concerning Kelmar’s contractual obligations as well as the application of state and federal unclaimed property laws, rules, and regulations. She develops advisory materials for use throughout the examination process to facilitate consistent and professionally responsible unclaimed property examinations on behalf of clients. Ms. Zejnullahu further assists Kelmar’s exam teams with legal issues presented by holders. She also maintains oversight of Kelmar’s document management program and advises on the retention, return, and/or destruction of holder records.

Applying her unclaimed property experience and legal expertise, Ms. Zejnullahu routinely consults with Kelmar’s clients on examination concerns involving confidentiality, privacy, and data security, and addresses client facing contractual, compliance, and regulatory matters. She also works with holders and advocates to address confidentiality and data security concerns.

Ms. Zejnullahu represents Kelmar in legal proceedings, and routinely consults with outside counsel as well as clients during the pendency of administrative and other legal proceedings inclusive of providing support relating to document production and review, discovery responses, and deposition preparation.

Prior Legal Experience

Prior to joining Kelmar, Ms. Zejnullahu was an Associate at Shilepsky, O’Connell, Casey, Hartley, Michon, Yelen LLC. She represented and advised employers in administrative and court proceedings concerning complex employment and business litigation matters. Ms. Zejnullahu drafted and reviewed employee handbooks and counseled clients on how to best comply with federal and state laws. Likewise, she negotiated business and employment related contracts for clients, including non-disclosure and non-competition agreements, employment contracts, and severance and release agreements.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Zejnullahu worked as an Associate at Berluti & McLaughlin, LLC. She represented and advised employers and employees before the MCAD, EEOC, Division of Unemployment Assistance, and Massachusetts Superior and District Courts in matters involving Chapter 151B, Title VII, ADA, FMLA, HIPPA, Wage and Hour, pre-employment screening and testing, termination and discipline, severance and release agreements, and non-competition agreements. She participated in all phases of litigation, including conducting internal investigations, drafting and responding to pleadings and discovery requests, taking and defending depositions, researching, drafting and arguing motions and supporting legal memoranda, preparing witnesses for trial, and attending mediation and arbitration proceedings.