Galli's education and early professional formation took place in Massachusetts. She completed her undergraduate studies at Williams College in Williamstown, in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, and her legal training at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, a city that borders Boston. Her later career was centered in Boston, where her firm has its headquarters.
Galli earned a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Williams College in 1978. The college was founded in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonial officer killed in 1755, and was chartered in Williamstown after an earlier free school had been established there. It was a men's college until 1970, when it became coeducational, so her undergraduate years took place in a coeducational institution known for its liberal arts curriculum.
She received a Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1984. Founded in 1817 through a bequest from Isaac Royall Jr., the school is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States and forms part of Harvard University. By the late nineteenth century Harvard had introduced practices, including the case method of instruction, that came to shape American legal education.
Galli's principal documented career was with Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston, where she became a partner. The firm was founded in Boston in 1865 by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, both Harvard Law School graduates. During the Great Depression and the New Deal it extended its practice into bankruptcy and labor work, and by the 1960s it had grown to nearly seventy-five attorneys. It now has more than 1,500 lawyers across its offices.
Her documented practice centered on life sciences and technology matters, including technology acquisition, transfer and licensing, joint ventures, research and development arrangements, and regulatory and compliance matters. Her clients included pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies, as well as universities and academic medical centers. She was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1985.
The firm's biography describes her as a retired partner.
