SHAWN P. KELLY
News
SHAWN P. KELLY
Senior Partner
Shawn P. Kelly is the Senior Partner of Kelly, Rode & Kelly, LLP, which firm has represented leading insurance companies for over sixty (60) years. He has been a member of the firm since 1977 and has been a partner since 1980. He handles a broad range of civil litigation matters with a particular interest in the defense of medical and hospital malpractice matters as well as general liability matters.
He was born in New York City and brought up in Stuyvesant Town and later moved to Long Island. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana and graduated in 1974. He then earned his Juris Doctorate degree from St. John's University School of Law in Queens in 1977 and was admitted to the bar in January 1978.
He was born in New York City and brought up in Stuyvesant Town and later moved to Long Island. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana and graduated in 1974. He then earned his Juris Doctorate degree from St. John's University School of Law in Queens in 1977 and was admitted to the bar in January 1978.
He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (FACTL). The American College of Trial Lawyers is an invitation only fellowship of exceptional trial lawyers of diverse backgrounds from the United States and Canada. The College thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality. (FACTL). No more than 1% of lawyers who are licensed to practice in a state, have their principal office there, and are actively practicing there may be elected as Fellow. He has also earned a rating of AV by his peers in Martindale-Hubbell.
In 1978, he successfully completed the NITA program, an intensive trial advocacy program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and later was asked to become an instructor of the program. He is an adjunct faculty member of the Hofstra University School of Law and has also lectured at St. John's University School of Law.
In 2001-2002 he was elected Chairman of the Trial Lawyers Section of the Nassau-Suffolk County Bar Association. Prior to becoming Chairman, he served many years as an officer and director of that Long Island trial organization. He was named by The New York Times to "Super Lawyers" as one of the top attorneys in the New York Metro Area, 2007-2023. He is also a member of the New York State Bar Association where he is a member of the Torts, Insurance and Compensation Law (TICL) Section as well as the Trial Lawyers Section.
He has lectured widely on matters of trial practice to the New York State Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute (PLI), the Nassau Academy of Law and the Law Department of the City of New York. He regularly appears before physicians' groups to lecture on litigation issues pertinent to the medical field. On September 19, 2016, he was an invited lecturer at the AAO-HNSF - American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. On June 9, 2017, he was an invited lecturer of the Association for Healthcare Risk Management of New York (ASHRM) held at the Andaz Hotel 75 Wall Street, NYC on “Emerging Trends in Medical Malpractice Litigation.” On September 12, 2017, he was an invited lecturer at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS)on “Malpractice in Otolaryngology: Strategies to Reduce Liability” held at the McCormick Convention Center Chicago, Ill. In October of 2018, he was invited back as a feature speaker to the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) which was held at the Georgia World Congress Convention Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
He is also a contributing author to Medical Malpractice in New York, 4th edition published by the New York State Bar Association 2017. He recently contributed two chapters to a text just published by Springer Publications May 2021 entitled “Litigation in Otolaryngology-Minimizing Liability and Preventing Adverse outcomes.”