About Kenneth Trombly

• 2021, 2020, 2019 & 2018, Recognized by ‘Super Lawyers” as among its “Top 100” D.C. area attorneys, by virtue of its proprietary rating system
• 2018, Board Certified “Civil Practice Advocacy”, The National Board of Trial Advocacy
• 2016, Board-Certified “Civil Trial Law,” The National Board of Trial Advocacy
• 2010, Trial Lawyer of the Year, Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
• Ranked “AV Preeminent” (the highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards) by Martindale Hubbell
• Rated 10/10 by AVVO
• Included in Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White Publishing Co., 2006 – Present)
• Designated as one of D.C.’s “Super Lawyers” (Law & Politics Magazine, 2007-Present)
• Past President, Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
• Past President, American Board of Trial Advocates, D.C. Chapter

Kenneth M. Trombly is a civil trial attorney licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and Maryland, who limits his practice to representing plaintiffs and their families in catastrophic injury and wrongful death litigation in state and federal courts. He is one of only ten Washington, DC-based attorneys who are board certified as a “Civil Trial Advocate” by the National Board of Trial Advocacy – a designation recognized by the American Bar Association, based on demonstrated jury trial experience, a written examination, and references from both former opponents, as well as judges before whom he has appeared. The recipient of an “AV Preeminent” rating from Martindale-Hubbell – its highest rating – for over a decade, he is also one of a small group of Washington, DC catastrophic injury attorneys who are currently included in both “The Best Lawyers in America” (Woodward White Publishing Co.) and “Super Lawyers”.

After earning his undergraduate degree at The George Washington University, he attended Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America, where he was a staff member of the Catholic University Law Review, a student coordinator of the school’s Columbus Community Legal Services clinic, and a participant in its then-fledgling Law Students in Court Criminal Justice Clinical Program. As a young lawyer, before his legal practice took on its present focus, Ken regularly accepted appointments to represent indigent criminal defendants in the District of Columbia Superior Court. During this period, he attended the National College of Criminal Defense in Houston, TX, and was the recipient of a U.S. Department of Justice grant to assist him in furthering his training as a trial lawyer. In the early 1980’s, when he began representing people who were injured on account of the negligence of others, Ken found this work to be both emotionally and intellectually rewarding – and within a decade, his law practice had gradually become focused on representing catastrophically injured persons and their families. In 2010, he was honored by the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, DC with its Trial Lawyer of the Year award.

Bar Admissions

Maryland Bar, 1973; District of Columbia Bar, 1975; United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 1974; United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 1975; United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1975; United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1977; United States Supreme Court, 1978.

Teaching Other Lawyers

Speaker, “Economics of Contingent Fee Cases,” Georgetown University Law Center Continuing Legal Education Program, 1982. Speaker, “Motor Vehicle Torts in the District of Columbia,” D.C. Trial Lawyers Annual Seminar, 1992. Speaker, “Communication, The Key to Litigation in the 90s – Settlement of Injury Cases,” D.C. Trial Lawyers Annual Seminar, 1994. Moderator, Panel on Expert Witnesses, D.C. Trial Lawyers Annual Seminar, 1995. Presenter and co-author of CLE materials, “The Pit Bull Deposition,” Georgetown University Law Center Continuing Legal Education Seminar, “Winning Discovery and Trial Techniques from Winning Lawyers”, 1995. Moderator and Presenter, “Plaintiff’s Tort Practice in the 90’s”, Federal Bar Association., Washington, DC. Presenter,“25 Tips for Settling Your Next Personal Injury Case”, D.C. Bar, Injury to Persons and Property Section, 1996. “Uncivil Depositions, Adding Insult to (Personal) Injury”, Presentation, D.C. Bar Annual Convention, 1997. Speaker, “Nuts and Bolts of Automobile Negligence Claims”, Trial Lawyers Seminar, Washington College of Law, American University, 1997. Participant, Mock Trial of a Traumatic Brain Injury Case, Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, The Association of Trial Lawyers of America National Convention, Washington, D.C.,1998. Moderator, American Board of Trial Advocates, Masters in Trial Program, New Orleans, LA, 1998. Speaker, “Arguing Damages in Tough Cases”, D.C. Trial Lawyers Association, 1998. Speaker, American University Law School/D.C. TLA Annual Nuts & Bolts Auto Seminar, 1999. Speaker, D.C. Trial Lawyers Association, Demonstrative Evidence Seminar, American University Law School, 2001. Speaker, Maryland Trial Lawyers Association, “Hired Guns Seminar on Defense Experts”, University of Baltimore Law School, Baltimore, MD, 2001. Speaker, D.C. Bar Program, “Preparing for Trial in the Serious Personal Injury Case”, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, Speaker, “Creative use of Demonstrative Evidence”, D.C. Trial Lawyers Seminar, American University Law School, 2003. Speaker, D.C. Bar/ D.C. TLA joint seminar “Case Selection in Automobile Tort Cases”, 2004. Speaker, “Advanced Personal Injury Procedures for the Experienced Litigation Paralegal”, Institute for Paralegal Studies, Washington, DC, 2004. Speaker, D.C. TLA Annual Seminar, George Washington University National Law Center, “Settlement Techniques in Automobile Cases”, 2008. Speaker, D.C. T.L.A. Presentation on Dealing with Difficult Clients, 2010. Speaker, D.C. Volunteer Lawyers Project, “Tips and Strategies for Successful Direct Examinations of Key Witnesses”, 2011. Guest Lecturer, Joel Bennett’s Law Office Management Class, David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia, 2013. Speaker, on the topics of Legal Ethics and Handling Liability Insurance Bad Faith Litigation, National Business Institute Seminar, “Auto Injury Litigation from Start to Finish,” Rockville, MD 2015. Panelist on “How Trial Lawyers Approach Mediation in Civil Cases,” D.C. Superior Court Multi-Door Division, Training Seminar, 2016. Co-presenter, “Robinson v Azer, Debrief of a multimillion-dollar verdict,” Maryland Association for Justice, Columbia, MD, 2017; Co-presenter, “Debrief of Robinson v Azer” for D.C. TLA, Washington, DC, 2017; Speaker, “Traumatic Brain Injury Cases; Neurologist and Attorney Perspectives.” National Business Institute Seminar, Washington, D.C., 2017; Co-Presenter, “Justice for Octogenarians” 71st Annual Melvin M. Belli Seminar, Denver, CO, 2018; Speaker, “Representing the Elderly Plaintiff in a Traumatic Brain Damage Case”, Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association for Justice, Members-only National Seminar, Washington, D.C., 2018; Speaker, “Cross-examination of a Defense Neurosurgeon”, DC TLA Educational Program, Washington, DC, 2019. Panelist, “Social Inflation- Fact or Fiction?”, National Conference of Insurance Legislators, 2022 Summer Conference, Jersey City, NJ

Activities in the Legal Community

Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, 2010; Special Recognition Award, 1990; President 1994-95; President-Elect 1993-94; Vice President 1992-93; Secretary, 1991-92; Treasurer, 1990-91; Member, Board of Governors, 1986-1990; President, Trial Lawyers Foundation, 1995-1996; Co-chair, Anti-Solicitation Committee, 2001- present; Co-Chair, Ethics Committee, 2009-2014; Member, Legislative Committee, 2006- present; Member, Public Education Committee, 2006-2008; Trustee, D.C. Legal Political Action Committee, 2008-present.

Mentor Attorney, District of Columbia Bar, Bread for the City Legal Clinic, D.C. Bar Pro-bono Project, 2001-present. Elected to Steering Committee of the D.C. Bar Section on Injury to Persons and Property, 1995; Co-Chair, 1996-1997; D.C. Bar Section on Litigation; elected to Steering Committee of the D.C. Bar Law Office Management Section; Member, Section on Public Interest and the Courts; Co-author of 1996 revisions to the chapter on Handling Personal Injury Cases, D.C. Practice Manual (D.C. Bar Publications); Digested Opinions of the Honorable Charles R. Richey for The District Court Digest, a DC Bar Publication; Delegate, District of Columbia Judicial Conference, 1995, 1998, 1999; Moderator, District of Columbia Superior Court Annual Bench & Bar Meeting, 1998; Bar Association of the District of Columbia, Member of Review Panels for 1998 and 2002 Revisions of Standardized Civil Jury Instructions for the District of Columbia.

American Association for Justice (formerly known as The Association of Trial Lawyers of America); Sustaining Member; Article Peer Reviewer, TRIAL Magazine; Member, Standing Committee on Public Education, 1993-1996; Sections: Product Liability, Professional Negligence, Motor Vehicles and Premises Liability; Member, Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group; Member, Interstate Trucking Litigation Group; Fellow, National College of Advocacy.

American Bar Association; Fellow, American Bar Foundation; Member, Section on Litigation; Member, Committee on Trial Evidence; Member, Committee on Product Liability.

American Board of Trial Advocates, Charter Member, District of Columbia Chapter; Treasurer, 2004-2005; President 2006-2010; Life Fellow, American Board of Trial Advocates Foundation; Master, George Washington American Inn of Court (1993-2000); Member and Panel Attorney, National Crime Victims Bar Association; Member, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice; Member, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists; Member, Maryland Association for Justice; Supporting Fellow, Roscoe Pound Civil Justice Institute Foundation; Sustaining member, Simon E. Sobeloff Law Society; Member, Advisory Council, Tzedek D.C.; Life Member, The Counsellors; Supporting Member, The Melvin M. Belli Society; Member, The American College of Board Certified Attorneys.

Trained and certified by the Multi-Door Office of the District of Columbia Superior Court as a Mediator for civil cases, serving pro-bono as a neutral assigned by the Court to assist in the resolution of cases in the Superior Court’s Civil Division (2013-2018); Volunteer Arbitrator, District of Columbia Superior Court and Circuit Court for Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Other Activities and Achievements

Appointed in 2003 as a Special Master by the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, in the cases of Boulos v. Islamic Republic of Iran, and Peterson v. Islamic Republic of Iran (Beirut, Lebanon Marine barracks bombing cases).

Testified on behalf of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, DC before the District of Columbia Council in support of The District of Columbia Vehicle Enforcement act of 2006 (auto insurance requirements for D.C. motor vehicles); in support of The White Collar Insurance Fraud Prosecution Enhancement Amendment Act of 2006 (advocating pro-consumer and pro-privacy legislation by creating a new law that makes it unlawful to solicit auto accident victims or to improperly disseminate police accident reports in the District of Columbia), testimony which was cited at length by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, in Bergman v District of Columbia, et al, 986 A.2d 1208 (D.C. 2010), in which a decision of the Superior Court holding the statute to be constitutional was affirmed by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; in opposition to The Jury Trial Improvement Act of 2006 (testifying against the reduction of peremptory challenges in criminal jury trials in the District of Columbia); and in support of the 1996 proposed budget for the District of Columbia Courts.

Author of “Conjuring and the Courtroom; All I needed to know about trying cases I learned by doing magic shows”, published in Law and Magic, A Collection of Essays (Carolina Academic Press, 2010; Professor Christine Corcos, ed.).

Author of “Curb Their Enthusiasm,” an article about addressing client expectations in the current civil justice environment, published in the June, 2009 issue of TRIAL magazine, a publication of the American Association for Justice.

Mr. Trombly is a life member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

Volunteer Attorney, Kerry/Edwards Campaign, Adams County Democratic Party- Election Day, 2004, Gettysburg, PA. Volunteer, Obama/Biden Get Out the Vote Effort, Sterling, VA, Election Day, 2008.

Volunteer Producer, “Swing State Magicians for Biden” virtual fundraiser, September, 2020.

Volunteer Producer, Fundraisers for Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Democracy Summer, September, 2018 and 2019.

Volunteer Producer, “A-Barack-Cadabra” fundraising events for the Obama for President Campaign, 2008 and 2012

Volunteer Producer, “An Evening of Magic and Hilarity for Hillary” fundraising event for the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign, 2016

In addition to his own private practice, Mr. Trombly has been privately retained to serve as an arbitrator and mediator of civil disputes.