Michael P.Kenstowicz (Mike)

Mike Kenstowicz has drafted appellate briefs, pleadings, and dispositive, evidentiary, discovery, and procedural motions for matters in federal and state courts. He has particular experience defending clients against products liability and public nuisance claims and has drafted motions challenging the use of financially interested counsel in public nuisance litigation. He also has assisted clients in removing cases to federal court and obtaining the transfer of cases to multidistrict litigation forums.

Mike maintains an active pro bono practice. Recently, he was on a team that obtained exculpatory DNA evidence on behalf of a client who has spent more than 40 years in prison. They used that evidence to vacate the client's conviction under Pennsylvania's Post Conviction Relief Act. After the conviction was vacated, Mike drafted the principal briefing for a degree-of-guilt hearing to defend the client against a first-degree murder charge. Mike's commitment to service extends to his position as a board member of Partners in Progress, a nonprofit that supports sustainable development and quality educational opportunities in rural Haiti.

Before and during law school, Mike served as a research assistant to Judge Richard Posner and Professor William Landes at the University of Chicago, where he performed economic analysis of law and judicial behavior research. Mike's empirical scholarship on judicial behavior has been published in the University of Chicago Law Review and the Temple Law Review Online. Immediately prior to joining Jones Day, Mike clerked for Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.