Koleen Sara Kirkwood

KOLEEN S. KIRKWOOD is a member of the firm's Commercial Litigation, Employment and Labor, Government Enforcement, Compliance, and White Collar Litigation, and Responding to Allegations of Sexual Misconduct Practice Groups.

Ms. Kirkwood has more than twenty years of legal experience serving as counsel in the private, corporate, and public sectors. In private practice, Ms. Kirkwood has extensive civil litigation and trial experience that includes multiple defense verdicts, directed verdicts, summary judgments, as well as successful Daubert challenges of expert witnesses. 

While serving as Senior Counsel with Bayer Corporation, Koleen provided counsel to various business groups and executives on issues ranging from labor and employment, regulatory and compliance, and commercial work.   Ms. Kirkwood was also responsible counsel for the company’s multimillion dollar pharmaceutical litigation involving one of its signature products. 

In her recent term as Special Prosecutor for the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Ms. Kirkwood worked for the Office’s Civil Rights, Sexual Exploitation, and White Collar Crime Section. In that capacity, Ms. Kirkwood investigated and prosecuted various cases including fraud, financial litigation, asset forfeitures, and sexual exploitation cases. She has also received training in Title IX and higher education compliance issues. 

Ms. Kirkwood is a member in the Diversity, Litigation, and Women in Law Committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association.

Ms. Kirkwood earned her law degree, cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law where she was the Symposium Editor for the Law Review. She received her undergraduate degree in Political Science, cum laude, from Duke University.