About Kelly Popkin
Kelly Popkin became a civil rights lawyer because she believes the law should protect people from abuse, not shield those who wield power without accountability. Throughout her career, she has represented individuals facing some of the most severe forms of government and institutional misconduct, from transgender women subjected to violence in prison, to people wrongfully convicted and incarcerated, to protesters and immigrant communities whose constitutional rights have been violated. Her work is driven by a commitment to ensuring that every person, regardless of status or circumstance, is treated with dignity under the law.
Kelly has built her civil rights practice around taking on difficult cases against powerful institutions. She has litigated cases across the country involving police brutality, wrongful convictions, unconstitutional prison conditions, disability discrimination, LGBTQ+ rights, and violations of constitutional protections. Kelly has worked at multiple national nonprofits and law firms, where she helped secure significant victories for incarcerated individuals and other vulnerable populations. She has argued multiple precedential appeals in federal courts, participated in groundbreaking civil rights litigation, and helped obtain justice for clients whose voices had too often been ignored.
Among her victories is an $8 million federal jury verdict for a Massachusetts man who spent nearly sixteen years in prison after police fabricated evidence, suppressed exculpatory information, and helped secure a wrongful conviction. The verdict held officers accountable for misconduct that stole years from her client’s life and underscored the vital role civil rights litigation plays in exposing governmental wrongdoing.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Kelly brings both legal and public health perspectives to her advocacy. Whether representing an individual client or pursuing broader systemic reform, she approaches each case with the belief that litigation can be a powerful tool for accountability and social change. She is proud to stand alongside clients who challenge injustice and fight for a more equitable legal system.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Trial Lawyers for Justice
These results are credited to Trial Lawyers for Justice. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Carrie DeJongh, 40, of Hull, Iowa, died on June 9, 2015 after receiving iodinated contrast dye for a CT scan at Sioux Center Health, when the physician treating her gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately check her vital signs or give epinephrine. Her family sued Sioux Center Health and Dr. Roy T. Slice for negligence, and both defendants denied the allegations. A Sioux County jury in Orange City returned a $29.5 million verdict on June 13, 2018, covering DeJongh's pain and suffering before her death and loss of consortium for her husband and four children. No appeal, remittitur or reduction has turned up since.
In February 2017, a physician assistant at a UnityPoint urgent care clinic in Des Moines diagnosed Joseph Dudley with the flu despite a negative flu test, sent him home on Tamiflu, and never ordered a complete blood count. Two days later Dudley was hospitalized with bacterial meningitis caused by an undetected heart valve infection, spent eight days in a medically induced coma, and suffered a series of strokes that left him with permanent brain damage, hearing loss, vertigo and nerve damage. A Polk County jury tried the malpractice claim against physician assistant Melanie Choos and Central Iowa Hospital Corp, doing business as UnityPoint Clinic, over a week in November 2022 and returned a $27,000,000 verdict, all of it noneconomic damages. The defense moved for a new trial afterward and UnityPoint said it was weighing an appeal.
Richard J. Pellock, 80, had surgery to remove bladder cancer at UnityPoint Health Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa in January 2015, and the operation succeeded. Days later he needed a second procedure for a post-surgical complication, and the nurse anesthetist handling that procedure induced anesthesia without first emptying his stomach despite signs he had a full one. Pellock aspirated, developed aspiration pneumonia and respiratory failure, and died. His widow and son sued the anesthesia group and a Dubuque County jury returned a $10 million verdict against it in September 2017, awarded entirely as loss-of-consortium damages. Defense lawyers were reported as saying they would challenge the verdict, but no Iowa appellate decision in the case has ever been published.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
