Mary Kennedy joined the firm as trial training counsel. Ms. Kennedy's responsibilities include providing advocacy training through in-house training and by co-counseling pro bono criminal cases with eligible lawyers. Ms. Kennedy has more than 35 years of litigation and training experience, including over 70 jury trials, over 25 of which were homicide trials, numerous bench trials, and countless trials during which she supervised other attorneys.
Before entering private practice, Ms. Kennedy spent two years at the Federal Defender Training Group. The bulk of Ms. Kennedy's trial experience came from her 11 years at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), where she represented both adults and juveniles at every stage of the criminal process. Ms. Kennedy was the Training Director at PDS during her last four years with the agency. Her responsibilities included training all new attorneys hired by the agency and providing monthly training to lawyers appointed to represent clients pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act.
Ms. Kennedy taught trial advocacy for many years as an adjunct at George Washington University Law School and continues to teach trial advocacy to the Prettyman Fellows at Georgetown Law School. Since 1990, Ms. Kennedy has been on the faculty of trial skills programs around the country, including the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School, the Western Trial Advocacy Institute in Laramie, Wyoming, the National Trial Advocacy College in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy in San Diego, California.
Recognition
Credentials
Education
- LL.M., Trial Advocacy, Georgetown University Law Center, 1988
- J.D., New York University School of Law, 1983
- B.A., Swarthmore College, 1980, cum laude
Admissions
- District of Columbia
- New York
Activities
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Board Member, Washington Council of Lawyers
- Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
- Board Member, Southern Center for Human Rights
- Board Member, Meadowbrook Foundation, Inc.