Robert Michael Kelly is a summa cum laude graduate of both the NYU School of Law and the NYU Graduate School of Business (now Stern). At NYU Law, he served as Note and Comment Editor of the NYU Law Review, was named a John Norton Pomeroy Scholar, and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. At Stern, he was selected for membership in Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business honor society. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science and philosophy from Fordham University, where he was News Editor and Editor-in-Chief of The Fordham Ram, a member of the Dean’s List, and a recipient of both a New York State Regents Scholarship and a New York City Mayor’s Committee on Scholastic Achievement Scholarship.
After graduating from law school, Kelly studied at the U.S. Army Intelligence School at Fort Holabird, Maryland, graduating with honors, and served as an interrogator in the U.S. Army Reserve for five years, attaining the rank of Specialist Fifth Class before receiving an honorable discharge in 1973.
Kelly began his legal career in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in 1970, where he spent five years prosecuting more than twenty homicide and homicide-related cases. He then spent over three decades as a senior trial lawyer at a prominent New York City and international law firm, focusing on complex civil litigation and filing more than a dozen petitions for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. While at this firm, Mr. Kelly spent a significant portion of his time working on pro bono projects for indigent clients and was awarded the firm’s first ever “Pro Bono Service Award.”
In his debut book, State of Georgia versus Clevon Jamel Jenkins, Kelly delivers a scathing indictment of the American criminal justice system – not as a prosecutor, but as a pro bono advocate for a wrongfully convicted black teenager. This riveting and meticulously researched work provides a comprehensive and scholarly analysis of an error-filled and badly decided case that has haunted the author for over two decades.
Now retired from legal practice, Kelly lives in central North Carolina with his wife, Margaret. He enjoys writing, studying, traveling, playing piano and violin, taking exercise classes at his local senior center, and following the marvelous adventures of his seven beloved grandchildren.
