Rebekah Kennedy, President-Elect, 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 a facilitator for an anger management/batterer’s intervention program, working with domestic violence offenders. While in law school she worked for the Presiding Judge of the Domestic Violence Part at Albany City Court prosecuting domestic violence and sex offense defendants, and later represented survivors of domestic violence in Family Court proceedings.
After graduation, 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, Ms. Kennedy worked for more than a decade for the Town Attorney’s Office for the Town of Colonie. Currently, she 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 returned to the CDWBA Board as a Board member.
At the WBASNY level, in addition to regularly attending WBASNY meetings and Leadership Trainings, and representing CDWBA as a WBASNY Delegate, Ms. Kennedy served as WBASNY Newsletter Chair from 2014 to 2022. Ms. Kennedy served as WBASNY’s Recording Secretary and Vice President before being elected to the position of President-Elect.
Ms. Kennedy is a long-time member of the Third Department’s Committee for Character and Fitness, acts as a mentor for Albany Law School students and served as mock trial coach for the Academy of the Holy Names. She also volunteers with The Legal Project and the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, Inc. She is a past recipient of CDWBA’s Outstanding New Lawyer Award.
Ms. Kennedy and her husband are long-time foster parents in Albany County. She lives outside of Albany with her husband, Ed, their two daughters and a variety of cats.