Kerry E Kennedy, Attorney

Kerry Kennedy holds a JD from Boston College Law School along with honorary law degrees from LeMoyne College and the University of San Francisco Law School, and Human Letters from Bay Path College and the Albany College of Pharmacy.

In her legal career, Kennedy focused on human rights. She was appointed president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in 1988 and Executive Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial until 1995. Kennedy is also an honorary president of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation of Europe in Italy. She has campaigned for a range of human rights, including children’s rights, child labor, ethnic violence, women’s rights, and workers’ rights. She has also worked on cases of environmental justice. In 1986, she established the RFK Center Partners for Human Rights, which advocates for human rights worldwide.

Outside of law, Kennedy is an author, speaker, and public figure. She authored the book “Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World,” and has written articles for The Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Yale Journal of International Law, and more. Kennedy has appeared on ABC, NBC, CNN, and PBS. In 2001, Kennedy was named “Woman of the Year” by Save the Children and “Humanitarian of the Year” by the South Asian Media Awards Foundation; she also received the Prima Donna Award from Montalcino Vineyards.  In 2008, Kennedy received the Eleanor Roosevelt Medal of Honor and the Thomas More Award from Boston College Law School, and she received the AIDS Trust’s Human Rights Award in 2009.

Under President Bush, Kennedy took on the role of Chair of the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council. She is also on the boards of the United States Institute of Peace, Human Rights First, and Inter Press Service in Rome, Italy. Kerry has been recognized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for working to abolish the death penalty, and she has won awards from the American Jewish Congress of the Metropolitan Region and the Institute for the Italian American experience.

In 2009, Kennedy’s assistance was solicited in a lawsuit against Chevron Corporation for human health and environmental damages encountered at the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador.

School	Degree	Major	Graduation
Golden Gate University School of Law		Law School	N/A
			Brown University, 1982

State / Court	Date
California	1991