Judge Timothy J. Kelly was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in September 2017.  He received his A.B., cum laude, from Duke University in 1991 and his J.D. from Georgetown University in 1997, where he served as a Senior Associate Editor of the American Criminal Law Review and represented indigent defendants in D.C. Superior Court through Georgetown’s Criminal Justice Clinic.

Judge Kelly began his career as an associate at the law firm of Arnold & Porter, where his practice focused on defending complex product liability cases in state and federal court.  From 1999 to 2000, he served as Arnold & Porter’s loaned associate at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, where he represented indigent clients in civil matters.  From 2001 to 2002, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ronald L. Buckwalter on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

In 2003, Judge Kelly joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia as an Assistant United States Attorney, where he prosecuted a variety of offenses, including serious violent crimes, drug trafficking, and white-collar offenses. In 2007, he joined the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section.  For his work prosecuting public corruption cases there, Judge Kelly received the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office Service Award. 

From 2013 to 2017, Judge Kelly served as Chief Counsel for National Security and Senior Crime Counsel to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley.

Judge Kelly is a Barrister of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court.  He is a former Treasurer of the District of Columbia Bar’s Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section Steering Committee.