Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Student Success
Prior to joining Quinnipiac, Barry was a teaching fellow in Georgetown University Law Center's Federal Legislation Clinic, where he represented a national coalition of disability rights organizations in support of their efforts to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act. He was also a member of the team of disability rights lawyers that successfully negotiated draft legislative language with lawyers from the business community, resulting in passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. Barry served as 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 Judge William E. Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and Judge Kermit V. Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Barry's work focuses on civil and human rights issues, including transgender rights, disability rights, and death penalty abolition. Barry and his students have filed amicus briefs on behalf of national and state transgender rights organizations and provided consultation in cases successfully challenging discrimination based on gender dysphoria under the ADA, including the landmark cases of Blatt v. Cabela's Retail, Inc. and Williams v. Kincaid. In 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court cited Barry's work in the landmark case of State v. Santiago, which declared Connecticut's death penalty unconstitutional.
Barry has published articles in the Harvard Law Review, Southern California Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Florida Law Review, and Boston College Law Review, among others. He is the past president of the board of She Leads Justice, a non-profit organization that serves women and girls.
Education
- BA, Boston College
- LLM, Georgetown University
- JD, Georgetown University
- JD, Boston College Law School
Areas of Expertise
- Administrative Law
- Civil Rights
- Constitutional Law
- Clinical Education
- Disability Law
Organization
- Law
Office Location
- School of Law and Education 126D
Mail Drop
- LW-CLN
Selected Publications
The Law of Abolition
Kevin M. Barry
107 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 521 (2017)
Blatt v. Cabela's Retail, Inc. and a New Path for Transgender Rights
Kevin M. Barry & Jennifer Levi
127 YALE L. J. F. 373 (2017)
The Death Penalty & the Dignity Clauses
Kevin M. Barry
102 IOWA L. REV. 383 (2017)
A Bare Desire to Harm: Transgender People and the Equal Protection Clause
Kevin M. Barry et al.
57 B. C. L. REV. 507 (2016)
From Wolves, Lambs (Part I): The Eighth Amendment Case for Gradual Abolition of the Death Penalty
Kevin M. Barry
66 FLA L. REV. 313 (2014)
The ADA Amendments Act of 2008
Chai R. Feldman, Kevin M. Barry, & Emily A. Benfer
13 TEX. J. ON C.L. & C.R. 187 (2008)