About Nancy
Nancy Kennedy began her legal journey in support roles. She worked as a litigation paralegal at BankBoston in 1997 and then moved into intellectual property support positions at Holland & Bonzagni, P.C. and The Hartford. Those early years shaped how she approaches cases today — attentive to detail, and conscious of how firm processes affect outcomes.
Her academic path mixed liberal arts and professional training. She earned a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1997 and completed an ABA-approved Paralegal Studies certificate at Bentley College the same year. Kennedy then pursued law, spending time at Tulane University School of Law for a certificate in international intellectual property law in 2002 before receiving her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 2005, where she studied intellectual property law.
Kennedy moved from paralegal work into the lawyer’s chair in the mid-2000s. She served as an intellectual property lawyer and partner at Alix, Yale & Ristas beginning in 2005. That role covered counseling clients, handling prosecution matters and responding to IP disputes. In 2020 she opened Kennedy IP, which allowed her to shape a practice around trademark and counseling work and to take on domain name and policy matters.
Teaching and public service have been part of her recent work. In 2023 she returned to the University of Connecticut School of Law as Visiting Professor From Practice, bringing current practice experience into the classroom. She has also served as a court-appointed animal advocate lawyer for Connecticut’s Judicial Branch since 2018, representing animal welfare interests in select proceedings.
Kennedy holds admissions to the Connecticut bar, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is active in professional organizations that intersect with trademark and internet policy. She represents the Intellectual Property Owners Association to the IP Constituency of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and maintains memberships in the International Trademark Association and the National Association of Women Lawyers.
In 2024 she joined Cantor Colburn LLP as a partner, bringing years of IP practice and policy experience to a larger firm setting. Her practice centers on intellectual property counseling, trademark prosecution, domain name matters and litigation matters in federal and state courts. She is currently practicing intellectual property law at Cantor Colburn LLP.
