Kevin F. O’Malley was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland on September 30, 2014 and presented his credentials to President Michael D. Higgins on October 8, 2014.
Kevin F. O’Malley, an attorney, was a partner at Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C., in St. Louis, Missouri, whose trial skills have earned him Fellowship in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mr. O’Malley has been an adjunct professor at both Washington University School of Law and Saint Louis University School of Law. He is a nationally recognized author of a treatise on jury instructions that is used in federal jury trials throughout the United States.
Mr. O’Malley is known as a leader, an experienced manager, and frequent public speaker, and he has been consistently chosen by the editors of “The Best Lawyers in America” for his
work in medical negligence defense and white collar criminal defense. Based on a career that has emphasized collegiality and common sense in litigation, he recently received the Award of Honor of the Lawyers Association of St. Louis, a recognition by lawyers for both plaintiffs and defendants of his abilities to resolve conflicts in a professional manner.
Before entering private practice, Mr. O’Malley was an Assistant United States Attorney in St. Louis, Missouri and a Special Attorney of the Organized Crime Section of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, California, and Phoenix, Arizona. During his tenure as a federal prosecutor, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Attorney General of the United States. He was a legal instructor for the Central and Eastern European Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) in both Moscow and Warsaw. In 2009, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon appointed Mr. O’Malley to the Missouri Board of Healing Art, its only non- physician member. He was subsequently elected as its President. He served as an officer in the United States Army Reserve.
Ambassador O’Malley earned an A.B. in 1970 and J.D. in 1973 at Saint Louis University where he was on the editorial board of its Law Journal.
Ambassador O’Malley has strong Irish roots; all of his grandparents were Irish and his grandfather emigrated from Westport, County Mayo. Ambassador O’Malley is joined in Ireland by his wife Dena. They have two sons, Brendan and Ryan.