Devin Kelly

About Devin Kelly

Roxanne Conlin is the founder of a law firm in Des Moines, where she represents individuals who have been harmed by others. She enrolled at Drake University at age 16 and graduated from law school with honors at 21. From 1969 to 1976, she served as an Assistant Attorney General for Iowa, leading the Civil Rights section, rewriting inheritance laws, strengthening assault laws, and stopping a utility merger that would have harmed consumers. After consulting for the U.S. Department of State during International Women’s Year, she became one of the first two women appointed as a United States Attorney in 1977, prosecuting heroin dealers, white-collar criminals, and government corruption.

Throughout her career, Conlin has led and supported numerous organizations. She was the first chair of the Iowa Women’s Political Caucus, served as president and general counsel for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, and later became the first woman president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Her achievements include recognition by the National Law Journal as among the 50 most influential women lawyers in America, induction into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame, and selection as the Democratic nominee for Governor of Iowa in 1982. In 1995, she was inducted into the Inner Circle of Advocates, reserved for 100 of the nation’s top plaintiff trial lawyers. A scholarship at the University of Missouri now bears her name, and she has received the Rosalie Wahl Award from the Minnesota Women Lawyers Association. Conlin and her husband James, married since 1964, have four children and five grandchildren.