Todd Kelly is, first, and foremost, a child of God. He is a devoted husband to his wife (and law partner), Robbye, and father of four amazing children, Joshua, Meghan, Matthew, and Selby. He cooks one large batch of crawfish per year and has become adept at smoking a brisket. Because he has tried to do life without Him, Todd will testify that he is an utter failure without his savior, Jesus, and that the rest of the narrative below is possible only by His unending grace… read more about that miracle in Todd’s recent autobiographical book Worth Dying For.
Experience On Your Side
Professionally, Todd is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is “AV” rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Todd is licensed in Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado and Pennsylvania. He grew up in Arlington, Texas, and received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Texas in 1987, while attending on an ROTC Scholarship. He earned his juris doctorate from the Dickinson School of Law in 1995 as a member of the Woolsack Honor Society, while serving as a U.S. Marine, where he returned to practice as a criminal defense attorney in the judge advocate’s corps.
Todd left the Marine Corps to enter private practice in 1998, after attaining the rank of Major. He represented asbestos exposure victims and other seriously injured people in Virginia and Pennsylvania before returning to represent victims of birth injury and nursing home abuse in his native Texas in 2002.
In 2006, Todd opened his own law firm in Houston, Texas, where he gained recognition for his representation of sexual assault victims by overseas military contractors.
Background
Todd has been featured on 20/20, The Rachel Maddow Show, and has been interviewed on legal topics by numerous national and local news programs, including CBS’ Insider Edition. In 2009, Todd appeared in front of committees of the United States Congress speaking on the Fairness in Arbitration Act, in an effort to eliminate mandatory, binding, pre-dispute arbitration provisions that are found in consumer products and other contracts. Todd was consulted by Senator Al Franken, who sponsored an amendment to the Senate Appropriations bill during that year which led to the abolition of forced arbitration for victims of sexual assault by most military contractors.
In 2013, Todd was inducted into the Texas Lawyer Hall of Fame following a $16,900,000 verdict on behalf of a mentally handicapped woman who was raped by a caregiver at her daycare facility.
Todd has received his 10-year Super Lawyer award as a Texas Super Lawyer, having been named by that publication in 2011, 2012 and every year since 2014.
Protector Of The Constitution
Todd has dedicated his life to making America safer. He began that service as a Marine Corps combat engineer officer. He now continues that work by protecting those truly injured people who will never get the justice that our system promises to them without holding greedy, powerful corporate entities responsible for the damage they cause. As a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Texas Trial Lawyers’ Association, and as a past president of the Capital Area Trial Lawyers’ Association, he remains a staunch defender of our right to trial by a jury of our peers in all cases with a value exceeding $20.00, as guaranteed by the 7th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Todd urges that if we fail to protect the 7th Amendment to the United States Constitution, we will eventually lose the rights guaranteed by all of the Amendments because it is this right to hold the powerful accountable, protected by the 7th Amendment, that protects the individual freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.
Education
Celebration Leadership Institute
Celebration Church, Georgetown, Texas
Diploma awarded – 2022
Trial Lawyers College
Student Graduate – July 2009
Faculty Instructor – Since May 2022
The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University
Juris Doctorate – June 1995
Honors: Woolsack Honor Society
The University of Texas at Austin
Bachelor of Arts – May 1987
Honors: Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society
Honors & Awards
Scott Osman Trial Lawyer of the Year – Capital Area Trial Lawyers, 2024
Rated “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell
Texas Super Lawyer, A Thomson Reuters Business, 2011-2012, 2014-2024
Top Lawyers: #1 Verdict in a Waco, Texas Personal Injury Case, 2024
Top Lawyers: #1 Settlement in a Sexual Assault Case, 2023
Austin’s Top Attorneys (Personal Injury), 2019 – 2024
Three Separate Cases included in the Top 10 Verdicts in Texas: 2022
Top 10 Verdicts in Texas: 2020
Top 50 Personal Injury US Verdicts 2020
Top 100 US Verdicts 2020
Verdict Search’s “Top Texas Verdicts” by Texas Lawyer in 2011, and twice in 2018
H Texas Magazine’s “Houston’s Top Lawyers,” in 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2012
Top 100 US Verdicts
Voted The Global Directory of Who’s Who Top Lawyer of 2015
Texas Lawyer Hall of Fame: 2013 Inductee
AVVO Rating of “10 – Superb”
