At Michigan Law, it’s natural to find friendships that last a lifetime. Just ask Kya Henley, ’16, and Calyssa Zellars, ’17, who met as members of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) and have remained close ever since.
Henley and Zellars recently added a business partnership to the list of things keeping them connected. Saint Park LLP, their new boutique law firm with offices in Detroit and Washington, DC, emerged after a conversation during last year’s Black Alumni Reunion. Together, the Michigan Law alumnae combine their expertise in investigations, litigation, crisis management, and other areas to provide strategic counsel and other services to a range of business and corporate clients.
Two roads to Michigan Law
Henley got her introduction to the legal field as a 16-year-old intern for the US Department of State and went on to earn her undergraduate degree in government and politics at the University of Maryland, where she was the captain of the mock trial team. That experience, she says, changed everything for her.
“All of my teammates were about to enter law school, and my professors and coaches were lawyers,” Henley says. “Being on the team made me feel like I would waste a life skill if I did not pursue law school myself—as if I was getting a push from the universe.”
Zellars, who arrived at Michigan Law two years after Henley, earned her public policy degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although she worked for a few years before entering law school—including as a member of the public relations team for the Detroit Lions—becoming a lawyer was something she had contemplated from an early age.
“I was raised visiting Hilton Head and East St. Louis, and in those two places, I saw a lot of inequality,” Zellars recalls. “I would see the disenfranchisement of people in East St. Louis, and then I would see rapid development all around my family in Hilton Head. I thought if I could be a lawyer, maybe I could help.”
The two met during Henley’s 3L year when she was assigned to mentor Zellars as part of BLSA’s community support network. They became fast friends.
“BLSA felt like a lifeline as a student,” says Henley. “The mutual support we had for each other made all the difference.”
After graduating from Michigan Law, Henley became a public defender and lead trial attorney in the Public Defender’s Office of Maryland. “I got phenomenal trial skills there,” she says. “I did dozens of trials in a very short time and leveraged that into Big Law.”
Henley joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Washington, DC, and specialized in white-collar work as a government enforcement and investigations associate. After three years, she moved to New York City to join Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP as a global litigation senior associate.
Zellars’s early career was similarly exploratory. Her first job out of law school was as an associate at Honigman LLP, but she soon realized that Big Law wasn’t for her. She left Honigman to become campaign manager for Color of Change, an online racial justice organization. She went on to serve as chief counsel for impact litigation at the Decarceration Collective, where she practiced in federal courts throughout Florida, Texas, and Chicago. She later joined BerlinRosen, a communications and PR agency, where she specialized in legal affairs and crisis communications.
Kya Henley, ’16Founding Saint Park is a true Michigan Law story. We are flourishing right now because of the support from the Michigan Law community, which is multigenerational.
Back in the Quad, a new venture takes shape
Henley and Zellars both returned to Ann Arbor in March 2023 to attend the Law School’s Black Alumni Reunion and the annual Alden J. "Butch" Carpenter Memorial Scholarship Gala. They spent the weekend talking about their careers, what they dreamed of doing, and the ideal way they each wanted to practice law. These conversations led to more concrete discussions about going into business together.
“We realized we both had an entrepreneurial itch,” says Henley. “We were very serious about it; we set meetings, had homework, and assigned tasks to complete. After about four meetings, we began considering the next steps.”
What emerged was Saint Park, a name inspired by the areas that led both Henley and Zellars to pursue legal careers.
“The ‘Saint’ in ‘Saint Park’ comes from East St. Louis, where my mother is from,” says Zellars. “‘Park’ is because Kya’s mother is from Park Heights, Baltimore. It reflects our maternal lineages and paths and that our firm reaches the Midwest and East Coast.”
Henley and Zellars opened the firm in August 2023 and are eager to continue growing their client base. They say their connection to Michigan Law has been an integral part of the story.
“Founding Saint Park is a true Michigan Law story,” says Henley. “We are flourishing right now because of the support from the Michigan Law community, which is multigenerational. Our first client came through a Michigan Law channel, and the people checking on us and spreading the good gospel about what we do are Michigan Law folks.”
