Matthew Kennelly is a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1999. Before his appointment, Judge Kennelly worked as an attorney in private practice, representing individuals and corporations in complex civil cases and in criminal cases in trial and appellate courts.
In 1996, he was a recipient of the American Bar Association?s Pro Bono Publico award, a Public Interest Law Initiative citation for distinguished public service and the Mexican- American Legal Defense and Education Fund?s Community / Public Service award. In 1993, the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association awarded him its Walter J. Cummings Award for excellence in advocacy.
Judge Kennelly has been a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1999, before his appointment to the bench. Since his appointment to the court, Judge Kennelly has served as the Seventh Circuit's representative on the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and he is currently a member of the Information Technology Advisory Committee of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Judge Kennelly also serves as a member of the Seventh Circuit Criminal Jury Instruction Committee and the Seventh Circuit Civil Jury Instruction Committee, and he chairs a committee of district judges and lawyers that drafted and periodically updates the local rules for patent infringement cases in the Northern District of Illinois. Judge Kennelly received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and his law degree from Harvard Law School.