Hon. Kelly L. Banach (Ret.) is a senior judge for the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania. She was elected to the bench in 2003. Banach took senior status in December 2020.
During her judicial tenure, she presided as the administrative judge of the Criminal and Juvenile Delinquency Divisions.
She received a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University in 1979. Banach went on to complete a J.D. at Villanova University School of Law in 1982.
Prior to joining the bench, she was a senior chief deputy district attorney with the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office. As such, Banach was supervisor of the Special Offenses Unit, handling sex crimes, child abuse, and domestic violence cases. She also developed the Protecting Kids from Cyber Crimes Program as Director of Training and Public Education. Banach joined the District Attorney’s Office in 1987.
Her legal career also included a stint in private practice at the Allentown law firm of Wiener and Wiener and two years as an assistant public defender in Bucks County (1983 to 1985).
Banach also taught as an instructor for the Allentown Police Academy and the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Institute.
She sat as a board member of the Child Advocacy Center of Lehigh County, was co-chair of the Lehigh County Death Review Team, and a past chair of the Lehigh County Criminal Justice Advisory Board.
Growing up, her father worked as a doctor and her mother worked in a medical lab.
Banach is registered as a Democrat.