Michelle C. Ifill, ESQ.

Michelle C. Ifill, Esq.
Vice President, Deputy General Counsel
Verizon Business, Rye Brook, N.Y.

Michelle C. Ifill, Esq., is vice president and deputy general counsel at Verizon Business. A natural mediator, Ifill leads a team of attorneys and legal assistants that provide legal support for the company’s Global Sales and Strategic Services business segment, covering the United States, Europe, the  Middle East and Africa.

Ifill became part of Verizon in 2006 when it acquired MCI, which she had joined in 1993 as a Global Accounts staff attorney. Prior to that, she was a corporate law associate at White & Case and at Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, both New York firms, specializing in securities, technology agreements and international business transactions. The move from law firm associate to in-house attorney came relatively quickly. “Having the right skill set at the right time opens doors,” explains Ifill, who joined MCI just six weeks after deciding to leave her firm.

Ifill was a founding member of the MCI (now Verizon) Legal Diversity Council, which is concerned with the retention and promotion of women and people of color and with implementing programs that encourage inclusion and the leveraging of Verizon’s diverse employee population. “To the extent that I can be a voice for those who are underrepresented, my mission is to help those voices to be heard and to use some of the lessons learned over the years of my career and pass them on to those behind me,” Ifill says.

Fluent in French, Ifill is an arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers; she is a member of the Corporate Counsel Women of Color, the National Bar Association and of the Executive Board of the Westchester Chapter of Jack & Jill of America Inc., a national nonprofit catering to children’s interests. She has a law degree from Harvard Law School and an undergraduate degree from Brown University.