Rate My Professor Kevin Barry

Kevin M. Barry is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Student Success at Quinnipiac University School of Law, where he also serves as co-director of the civil justice clinic representing low-income clients through direct legal services and policy advocacy. He teaches administrative law and disability law. Barry's areas of expertise encompass administrative law, civil rights, constitutional law, clinical education, and disability law. He holds a BA from Boston College, JD summa cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2000, LLM from Georgetown University Law Center, and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining Quinnipiac in 2008, Barry was a teaching fellow in Georgetown University Law Center's Federal Legislation Clinic, representing disability rights organizations in negotiations that led to the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. Earlier, he was an associate at Ropes & Gray, a researcher at Amnesty International USA and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and a law clerk to U.S. District Judge William E. Smith and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Kermit V. Lipez for the First Circuit.

Barry's research interests focus on civil and human rights, including transgender rights, disability rights, and death penalty abolition. His scholarship has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, lower federal courts, and state high courts, including the Connecticut Supreme Court in State v. Santiago (2015), which declared Connecticut's death penalty unconstitutional. Key publications include "The Law of Abolition," 107 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 521 (2017); "Blatt v. Cabela's Retail, Inc. and a New Path for Transgender Rights," 127 Yale L.J. F. 373 (2017, with Jennifer Levi); "The Death Penalty & the Dignity Clauses," 102 Iowa L. Rev. 383 (2017); "Parental Autonomy, Family Disruption, and a New Attack on Transgender Rights," 16 Northeastern U. L. Rev. 673 (2024, with Jennifer Levi); and "Transgender Athletes & Disability Rights," 35 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 178 (2024). In the civil justice clinic, Barry and students have filed amicus briefs for transgender rights organizations in cases like Blatt v. Cabela's Retail, Inc. and Williams v. Kincaid, and consulted on ADA claims involving gender dysphoria. He is the past president of the board of She Leads Justice.