Sally Skees-Helly is a graduate of Xavier University (B.A. 1986) and DePaul University Law School (J.D. 1991) and was admitted to the Ohio and Massachusetts state bars. She worked as a clerk in international customs and trade law with a small firm in Chicago, IL, as well as with the environmental division of the Illinois Attorney General in Chicago. She worked in land use and public utility law as an associate attorney in Massachusetts. She received training in mediation and took extensive course work in alternative dispute resolution while in law school and worked for both the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago, IL and the City Prosecutor's Mediation Division in Cincinnati, OH.
Sally opened and operated two restaurants with her husband and recently moved to the Capital District. She is a member of the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation, the New York Dispute Resolution Association, Inc., and the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York.