Rebekah Nellis Kennedy

Rebekah Kennedy, incoming Vice President, received a B.A. in Criminal Justice and Sociology from the University at Albany and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Albany Law School, with an honors concentration in criminal law.

During her undergraduate and law school years, Ms. Kennedy worked as a legal secretary and as a facilitator for an anger management/batterer’s intervention program working with domestic violence offenders. While in law school, she prosecuted domestic violence and sex offense defendants, worked for the presiding judge of the Domestic Violence Part at Albany City Court and thereafter represented survivors of domestic violence in Family Court proceedings.

Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Kennedy served as an Appellate Court Attorney for the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department. Following her clerkship, she joined D’Agostino, Krackeler, Maguire & Cardona, P.C., while also serving on the assigned appellate panel for the Appellate Division, Third Department, representing indigent criminal defendants.

Thereafter, for more than a decade, Ms. Kennedy worked for the Town Attorney’s Office for the Town of Colonie and she currently works as the first female Majority Counsel for the Albany County Legislature.

Ms. Kennedy has long been an active member of both the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (“WBASNY”) and the Capital District Women’s Bar Association (“CDWBA”). She served as Chair of many CDWBA committees over the years, including the Mentoring, Membership, Newsletter and LGBT Committees. She became a Board member in 2010 and later served multiple terms as Treasurer and First Vice-President before being elected the 38th President of the CDWBA. Following her presidency, Ms. Kennedy continued her service to CDWBA by returning as a member of CDWBA Board.

At the WBASNY level, Ms. Kennedy served as WBASNY Newsletter Chair from 2014 to 2022 and as WBASNY’s Recording Secretary in 2022-2023.

Ms. Kennedy is a long-time member of the Third Department’s Committee for Character and Fitness. She also serves as a mentor for Albany Law School students and served as mock trial coach for the Academy of the Holy Names. She volunteers with The Legal Project and the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, Inc. She has presented at various training sessions and CLEs on vehicle and traffic law, zoning and planning board procedures and ethics, and SEQRA. Rebekah is a recipient of CDWBA’s Outstanding New Lawyer Award.

Rebekah lives outside of Albany with her husband, Ed, their two daughters, and a variety of cats.

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