Kelly Rentzel serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary for First Foundation Inc. and its subsidiaries, First Foundation Bank and First Foundation Advisors. Prior to her current role, Kelly was Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary at Texas Capital Bank, where she worked for nine years, starting as the bank’s first in-house lawyer and going on to build a full-service in-house legal team. Before joining the banking world, Kelly worked as a litigator at Baker Botts LLP and as a staff attorney for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She currently serves on the Board of the Dallas Bar Association and is a past president of the Southwest Association of Bank Counsel.
Kelly is an honors graduate of both the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University and Rice University. It was at Rice that she deepened her love of Shakespeare, discovered her talent for the Macarena, and was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder.
Kelly first spoke publicly about her mental illness in August 2017 at a Dallas Bar Association seminar. She has since authored multiple articles, launched a website (bipolaroz.com), and spoken to audiences from Austin to Omaha about successfully living with bipolar disorder. Her TEDx talk, “Bipolar Book Club: Tales from a Storybook Recovery,” has received more than 25,000 views on YouTube. In recognition of her advocacy, Kelly has received a Distinguished Alumni Award from SMU, a Dallas Bar Association Presidential Citation, and the “Outstanding Public Service & Pro Bono Award” from the Association of Corporate Counsel. Her story has been featured in the ABA Journal, The Texas Lawbook, and The Dallas Morning News.
Kelly recently completed a manuscript about her experiences, tentatively titled Crazyhorse. The book ends with a tribute to Kelly’s greatest inspiration, her eleven-year-old daughter Catie, who still thinks Mom is pretty boring.