Experienced Employment Lawyer
Kristyne Kennedy is a Partner with the law firm of Cole, Scott & Kissane, P.A., and is head of the Orlando office’s Employment Practice Group. Kristyne is an accomplished civil litigation attorney with extensive experience practicing employment law including litigation and trial experience. For more than 20 years, Kristyne has been providing employers with legal advice and counseling focused on preventive practices designed to avoid litigation. Kristyne’s practice is primarily devoted to representing clients in employment law defense with experience litigating several different areas of employment law, and is a regular speaker on a variety of employment law topics at seminars and other presentations.
Although she is proud to call herself a “Florida native” (born in Pensacola, FL), Kristyne is equally proud to have grown up in Iowa, where she picked up strong midwestern values including her genuinely nice and friendly attitude and strong work ethic. She also inherited her passion for hard work and drive for success from her dad, a retired Navy Commander who was a renowned expert in human factors psychology. She moved to Florida in 1989 to be closer to her father and other family who had relocated here (and to get away from those cold Iowa winters!), and worked for him while attending UCF studying organizational communication. After graduating from UCF, Kristyne moved to Miami to go to law school at UM and fulfill her dream of becoming an employment lawyer. During law school she focused her studies on employment law, and served as President of the Labor and Employment Law Society while also interning for the Miami EEOC.
In 2001, Kristyne moved back to Orlando to work at the one of the largest national employment law firms, Jackson Lewis. After almost a decade with the firm, she branched out to start her own employment law firm, where she continued representing and advising employers but also gained some valuable insight and experience by consulting with and representing employees. In 2011 she joined CSK and quickly became the head of the employment practice group in Orlando, which has steadily grown in size.
Kristyne has also been an active member of various professional and volunteer organizations in the Central Florida community. She served in several leadership roles in the Orange County Bar Association (OCBA) and other organizations, and in 2012 became President of the OCBA – at the time only the sixth female to serve in that role. She has repeatedly been selected as one of Florida’s “Super Lawyers” in the practice area of employment and labor law.
Kristyne enjoys living in the quirky Milk District near downtown Orlando with her cats, Kierkegaard and Tybalt (a.k.a. “Punkin”), spending time with family including her numerous nieces and nephews who love their “crazy aunt,” and going online to shop for random surprise deliveries for friends.
