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Counsel to the U.S. Attorney

Alison Donahue Kehner

kehner

Alison Donahue Kehner has served as Counsel to the United States Attorney and an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since May 2018.   As a member of the Office Executive Team, Ms. Kehner advises the U.S. Attorney on a variety of policy, operational, public affairs, and community engagement issues relating to the Office. Ms. Kehner also represents the Office in criminal cases before the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Prior to joining the Office, Ms. Kehner worked in private practice as a litigator at Dechert, LLP and in legal academia.  Most recently, Ms. Kehner was a member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she served as a Senior Lecturer in Legal Practice Skills.  In that capacity, she taught first-year and upper-level seminar courses and assisted with all aspects of curriculum design for the nationally recognized Legal Practice Skills program at Penn Law.  Previously, she was a faculty member at Widener Law School, Delaware Campus. Ms. Kehner began her career by serving as a law clerk in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She clerked for the Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell, United States Circuit Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; the Honorable Morton I. Greenberg, United States Circuit Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; and the Honorable Mary L. Cooper, United States District Judge of the District of New Jersey.

Ms. Kehner earned a B.A. in History, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Delaware.  She earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from Villanova University School of Law, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif, valedictorian of her law school class, and a Senior Editor of the Villanova Law Review.

Ms. Kehner is actively involved in the community, including serving as a volunteer for Haddonfield Public Schools, an instructor with the Rendell Center for Civic Engagement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and with the Chester Youth Courts Program in Chester, Pennsylvania. She also serves as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and is a member of the Federal Bar Association's Government Relations Committee, the Third Circuit Lawyers' Advisory Counsel, and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Inn of Court.

Updated June 24, 2022