Colleen Kelly Faherty
President
Colleen is Special Trial Counsel within the Executive Division of the New York State Office of the Attorney General. Colleen joined the NY AG in October 2016, serving as an Assistant in the Division of State Counsel, Litigation Bureau (Law Enforcement Group) until December 2019, when she transitioned onto the Federal Initiatives team within the Executive Division. Predominantly litigating affirmative civil cases, Colleen handles matters of significant public and legal importance, both at the State and Federal levels. Prior to joining the AG's Office, Colleen was a criminal defense attorney at the boutique defense firm, Fischetti & Malgieri LLP, handling white collar cases in the federal and state courts. She also served as a law clerk to the Hon. Frederic Block, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. Colleen is actively involved with the Federal Bar Council, where she is a member of the Inn of Courts, the Public Service Committee, the Second Circuit committee, the First Decade Committee and serves as trustee for the Council. In 2012, Colleen was offered through the Joint Minority Bar Judicial Internship Program (JMB JIP) an internship placement with the Hon. Jack B. Weinstein, in the Eastern District of New York. She remained actively involved with the JMB JIP, which subsequently led her to the Sotomayor Program, because of her desire to support both organizations' goals of promoting diversity in the legal profession.
Colleen received a dual bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in the Program of Liberal Studies and Fine Arts, and her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law, where she was Student Bar Association President and an executive member of the Dispute Resolution Society. Since 2022, Colleen has returned to Seton Hall as an adjunct professor, teaching Mediation Advocacy skills and Dispute Resolution Processes.