Linda M. Gadsby, ESQ.

Linda M. Gadsby, Esq.
Vice President, Deputy General Counsel
Scholastic Inc., New York City

Linda M. Gadsby was incredibly shy but smart, and the nuns at her parochial middle school in the Bronx, N.Y., saw her potential. They tutored and encouraged her and eventually unleashed the lion crouching behind the lamb. “By the time they were finished grooming me, I was winning public speaking competitions all over New York City!” exclaims Gadsby. 

Gadsby went on to study industrial and labor relations at Cornell University and received a law degree from New York University School of Law. After graduation, she specialized in labor and employment law. “I find this area of law interesting and challenging because it’s not static and you get to help people solve their problems,” she says. She now is vice president and deputy general counsel at Scholastic Inc., the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, where she handles all labor, employment, immigration and employee benefits work, and serves as key legal adviser handling general legal matters for two of the company’s largest divisions, Scholastic Book Fairs Inc. and the National Service Organization.

She knows that she needs time to unwind. “One of my promises to myself is to treat myself to a massage or a facial once a month and travel once a quarter,” she explains. “Of course, I never keep that promise. But that is the goal.”  

Among her many civic activities, the most rewarding, she says, is her service on the board of REACH, which provides supplemental AP instruction and awards financial incentives to high-achieving high-school students. “We want to be that voice that tells them they can attend the best colleges in the country and provide them with the necessary tools and support for them to accomplish that goal,” says Gadsby, who has an 11-year-old son and lives in New Jersey. “Exposure enables them to dream” she says.