Hon. Melissa A. Kennelly is a judge for the 8th Judicial District Court of New Mexico. She was appointed to the bench by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in April 2019.
The 8th Judicial District includes Colfax, Taos, and Union Counties. On the bench, Kennelly has presided over cases filed in Colfax and Union Counties, including felony criminal, civil, probate, children’s court, domestic matters, and administrative and magistrate court appeals. She also serves as the 8th Judicial District water judge and presides over the Raton Adult Drug Court and Behavioral Health Court.
Prior to her appointment, she worked as an attorney for the 8th Judicial District Court and handled general civil litigation and transactional work in private practice. Kennelly also served as an appellate law clerk to the Hon. Timothy L. Garcia with the New Mexico Court of Appeals and the Hon. Steven L. Bernard with the Colorado Court of Appeals.
She received a B.A. in English literature from Baldwin-Wallace College in 1997. Kennelly went on to complete a J.D. at the University of New Mexico School of Law in 2010. While a law student, she was Editor-in-Chief of the Natural Resources Journal and a Seth D. Montgomery Fellow at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty.
She was admitted to practice in Colorado (2013) and New Mexico (2010).
Before pursuing her law degree, Kennelly worked six years as a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio. She was a third-generation police officer, including her father, uncle, and grandfather. After moving to Taos, New Mexico, in 2004, Kennelly found odd jobs working in the restaurant industry and as an adobe plasterer, a handy-woman, a laborer, a writer for The Taos News, and a researcher for the Taos “Horse Fly.”
Her memberships have included the Taos County Bar Association and the Taos Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). She served as chair of the New Mexico Supreme Court Commission on Mental Health and Competency and as a member of the Judicial Standards Commission and the Judicial Conclave Planning Committee.
In Taos, Kennelly was commissioner of the Acequia Association.
She is registered as a Democrat.