Elizabeth Kelley is a criminal defense lawyer based in Spokane, Washington, with a nationwide practice specializing in representing people with mental disabilities. She is the editor of four books published by the American Bar Association (ABA): Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers; Representing People with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers; Suicide and Its Impact on the Criminal Justice System (with Francesca Flood) and Representing People with Dementia: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers, October 2022 (scheduled). She co-chaired The Arc’s National Center for Criminal Justice and Disability Advisory Board and served three terms on the board of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). She is active in the ABA, serving as a Vice President of the Criminal Justice Section Council, the Editorial Board of Criminal Justice Magazine, and having served on the ABA’s Commission on Disability Rights and as an observer at the hearings at Guantanamo. She currently serves as the Editor of the ABA’s Annual publication, The State of Criminal Justice.
