Jon Kelley is a litigation partner and trial lawyer in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing on commercial, mass tort and products liability litigation. Jon has experience in all aspects of trial strategy and major case litigation, including experience guiding clients through MDLs, mass actions, class actions and other complex litigation. His roster of clients includes AbbVie, AT&T, Samsung, Kimberly-Clark and Young Living, among others. Jon has served as trial counsel in a number of high profile cases, including for Allergan in connection with nationwide opioid litigation and Juul Labs in litigation involving products liability and marketing claims. Jon also has experience litigating First Amendment cases, and second-chaired a trial victory in a First Amendment commercial speech case before the Chief Judge of the District Court for the District of Colorado, which was affirmed by the Tenth Circuit. For his pioneering work on this case, the National Law Journal recognized Jon as a First Amendment Trailblazer. Prior to joining Kirkland, Jon represented a diverse group of clients including Microsoft, Major League Baseball, Pfizer, JPMorgan, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the National Football League in its NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, the Blackstone Group and other Fortune 500 companies.
Jon leads the Firm’s efforts to partner with AbbVie in organizing and hosting an annual trial academy for law students from various HBCUs across the country, which is now in its third year. Jon has also published articles on trial preparation and strategy for Bloomberg Law and Law360, and serves as a pro bono coordinator for Kirkland’s Dallas office.
Jon earned his law degree from Duke University School of Law. After graduating summa cum laude with his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University, Jon received a Fulbright Grant from the U.S. Department of State and spent a year living in South Korea. Jon has traveled extensively, and, among other international work, has served as a visiting professor at a university in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
