KEENAN’S KIDS FOUNDATION
Our Mission
The Atlanta-based Keenan’s Kids Foundation was formed in 1993 to assist and advise children both directly and through the training of law students and practicing lawyers so they are more aware of the needs of children at-risk in the legal system. The Foundation’s mission is three-fold, focusing on the following components:
Charity: Clothing drives, feeding the homeless, children’s events, and fundraisers like the Murphy House Project and Stars of the South.
Community Awareness: Press Conferences and media campaigns, ethics speeches, the annual Law School Competition.
Child Advocacy: 365 Ways to Keep Kids Safe book, Kids Safety Bulletin and Article Syndication.
DON KEENAN
During his 40 year national career, Don has obtained over 327 verdicts/settlements over a $1,000,000.00, eight over $10,000,000.00 and one verdict over $100,000,000.00 including 7 over $10,000,000 and one over $100,000,000. He has twice been chosen “Trial Lawyer of the Year” and was given by Oprah Winfrey the distinction as a “person of courage”. Don has handled associated cases in over 47 states and 5 foreign countries. NBC News 27 years ago featured Don as a pioneer in the evolution of focus groups. He’s recognized as an innovator and out of the box leader of the trial bar twice serving as national President, first of ABOTA (1992) and the youngest member (1987) and youngest President of the Inner Circle of Advocates (1997).
In 1993, Don founded the non-profit Keenan’s Kids Foundation due to his strong belief that our duty does not end when we secure justice for the child and family. Don feels it is equally important to learn from the prevention lessons of the case and formulating a public awareness campaign to help prevent future injuries and deaths and when necessary, push for legislation and regulations. He calls this unique approach to law the One-Third Solution: one-third litigating the case, one-third public awareness on the prevention and one-third pushing for regulations and legislation.
DAVID BALL
David Ball, who wrote trial advocacy’s best-selling strategy book – David
Ball on Damages -- is a litigation researcher and strategist with North
Carolina’s Malekpour & Ball Consulting (JuryWatch, Inc.). He is the
nation's most influential jury consultant, communications expert, and advocacy
teacher. His training is in science, engineering, and small-group
communications, and he is a 30-year veteran of the professional theater.
Dr. Ball and his partner,
lawyer/consultant Artemis Malekpour, consult on civil and criminal cases across
the country. They are routinely credited with turning the most difficult cases
into significant victories. They are the nation’s only trial consultants
qualified to safely and comprehensively guide attorneys with Reptilian and David Ball on Damages methods and
strategy. Their hundreds of brainstorming sessions – “WorkDays” – have become
the gold standard for case-strategy development.
In addition to David Ball on Damages, Dr. Ball’s other landmark
advocacy books include Theater Tips &
Strategies for Jury Trials, Reptile (with Don Keenan), Theater for Trial (with Joshua Karton), Reptile in the MIST, and David
Ball on Criminal Defense.
Dr. Ball has taught law students at North Carolina, Wake
Forest, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Roger
Williams, Loyola, and Campbell schools of law, and at Duke
Law as Senior Lecturer. He's an award-winning teacher for the North Carolina
Advocates for Justice and the American Association for Justice’s National
College of Advocacy. He has long been among the nation's most in-demand of
Continuing Legal Education speakers. His favorite job was taxi driver in the
1970s in Stamford, CT – and his Daddy was a Catskill Mountains bootlegger
during Prohibition.
Dr. Ball is a pioneer in adapting
film and theater methods into trial techniques. His theater/film students have
won Oscars, Obies, Tonies, and Emmies; his scripts have been staged at
professional theaters off-Broadway, throughout North America, and overseas. He
helped to lead the Guthrie Theater, as well as Carnegie-Mellon University’s
renowned theater conservatory and, as Chair, Duke University’s Drama
Department. His best-selling film and theater training book, Backwards and Forwards, has been the
field’s standard every year since 1984. his crossover text, Theater Tips and Strategies for Jury Trials along
with the new Theater for Trial are the standards
for the use of film and theater techniques in litigation.
Dr. Ball also wrote the cult
classic film Hard Rock Zombies, and
made up for it by writing Swamp Outlaw,
a novel about Civil-War-Era Lumbee hero, Henry Berry Lowery. TV fans: Please note
that Dr. Ball and Dr. Bull deny each other’s existence.