Kathryn J. Kennedy
Associate Dean for Advanced Studies & Research
Professor
Chair, Tax and Employee Benefits Practice Group
The John Marshall Law School
315 South Plymouth Court
Chicago, Illinois 60604
312.427.2737 ext. 515
E-mail: 7kennedy@jmls.edu

BS, with honors, Drake University
JD, summa cum laude, Northwestern University School of Law, Order of the Coif
FSA, Society of Actuaries

Kathryn Kennedy joined The John Marshall Law School as a full-time faculty member after many years of private practice and as an adjunct professor specializing in employee benefits law. She had practiced with the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery in Chicago and was an actuary with the actuarial consulting firm of Towers Perrin.

She became a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 1976. Due to her combined legal and actuarial background, she offers the law school a unique perspective in the area of employee benefits law. In 2006 she published a textbook, entitled Employee Benefits Law: Qualification and ERISA Requirements, as part of the LexisNexis graduate tax series.

Dean Kennedy has also published numerous articles on employee benefits law, available at http://www.jmls.edu/facultypubs/Kennedy/index.shtml. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pension Benefits and Journal of Individual Employment Rights, and is a member of Westlaw's Employment Advisory Board. Dean Kennedy has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on several occasions and has proposed legislation in the area of executive deferred compensation plans. She is presently the vice chair of the Chicago Bar Association Employee Benefits Committee, has served as the chair of the Illinois State Bar Association Employee Benefits Section Council, and is an active member of the Employee Benefits Committee of the ABA Section of Taxation.

She is the primary faculty advisor for the John Marshall Law Review. Dean Kennedy established the LLM Program in Employee Benefits in 1998, expanding upon the graduate tax program's employee benefits concentration.