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Attorney Advertising. The information on this profile does not constitute legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by reading it. Past results described do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Kevin P. McKernan has been practicing law since 1978 — long enough to have worked as a store clerk, cashier, bartender, and camp counselor before it, jobs he credits with teaching him how to read a jury. Forty-two-plus years later, the Staten Island practitioner sits on the National College for DUI Defense’s Trial Advocacy Board, where he advises other DUI defense attorneys as they prepare for trial — a role that puts him in the small group of New York City lawyers whom the national DUI defense bar itself consults on strategy.
At a Glance
| Firm | The Law Firm of Kevin P. McKernan |
| Principal Attorney | Kevin P. McKernan |
| Staten Island Office | 7247 Amboy Road, Staten Island, NY 10307 (an earlier listing shows 503 Mosely Avenue — see Methodology) |
| Focus | DUI/DWI defense and criminal defense, within a general practice that also covers business, real estate, and estate planning matters (see Assessment) |
| Bar Admission | New York, 1978 — currently registered, no misconduct found |
| Fee Structure | Consultation required; no published fee schedule located |
Career History
McKernan is a lifelong New Yorker — born and raised in the city, leaving only for his undergraduate years at Notre Dame — and his legal résumé runs through an unusual amount of the city’s institutional machinery. He began as a Legislative Attorney for the New York City Council, then served as Law Secretary to New York State Supreme Court Justices, before being appointed to the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office, where he rose to Bureau Chief of Investigation and Senior Trial Attorney, winning numerous felony jury trials. He names former Staten Island District Attorney William Murphy as a mentor. In private practice since, he has built a Staten Island firm anchored in criminal and DUI defense, and was appointed to the National College for DUI Defense’s Trial Advocacy Board.
Practice Concentration
The DUI defense work is genuine and nationally recognized — the NCDD does not put attorneys on its Trial Advocacy Board as a courtesy, and his Avvo profile lists DUI/DWI as his practice concentration. At the same time, the firm’s own materials describe a broader general practice: criminal law, family law, real estate, bankruptcy, business law, and wills, trusts, and estate planning alongside DUI defense. For a Staten Island solo practice serving a borough community across four-plus decades, that breadth is a familiar and legitimate model; it is also a materially different model from the DWI-only boutiques elsewhere in this category, and this profile says so plainly rather than presenting him as exclusively a DWI lawyer.
Track Record
McKernan’s documented trial record centers on his prosecutorial career — numerous felony jury trial wins as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Richmond County DA’s Office — and on four decades of defense-side criminal practice since. The firm does not publish a case-results page with individual DWI dispositions, and this research could not compile one from independent sources; that absence is disclosed here rather than papered over with vague claims. What is independently verifiable is the arc: prosecutor’s trial experience, a clean 47-year bar record, and a national advisory role teaching DUI trial practice to other lawyers. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.
Client Voice
The review picture here is mixed across platforms, and we report it that way. Martindale-Hubbell peers rated him “Distinguished” in 2021 — a peer-review rating indicating wide respect for professional achievement and ethical standards — and he has earned Avvo Top Contributor recognition for answering the public’s legal questions. But one consumer review platform, Experience.com, shows an aggregate rating of 3.87 stars, weaker than the near-perfect scores common among the DWI boutiques in this category. This research did not surface any disciplinary findings — his New York registration since 1978 shows no misconduct found — but prospective clients should read the consumer reviews themselves and weigh recency and specifics.
Beyond the Courtroom
McKernan’s civic footprint on Staten Island is extensive and specific: membership in the Kiwanis Club, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, and the Warren Jacques Committee; sponsorship of Bread of Life food drives, Kiwanis and Hibernian charities, and local road races; and a standing practice of funding summer camp for financially needy children. That work has drawn the Hubert H. Humphrey Community Award, Fordham Law School’s Sullivan Murphy Award for the Distinguished Practitioner of Law, and Notre Dame’s O’Regan Award. In October 2021 he was named the Staten Island Board of Realtors Affiliate of the Year.
Recognition
The recognitions here divide cleanly under our editorial standard. Peer-reviewed: the Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished rating (2021) and the NCDD Trial Advocacy Board appointment, both conferred by fellow lawyers on professional merit. Community-conferred: the Humphrey, Sullivan Murphy, and O’Regan awards. A disclosure we apply to every New York profile: New York State does not operate a board certification program for legal specialties comparable to the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, so no New York attorney profile on this site will describe its subject as a state-certified specialist, and this profile attributes no certification to McKernan.
New York Legal Backdrop
New York’s impaired-driving offenses are tiered under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192: Driving While Ability Impaired by alcohol (§ 1192(1)) is a traffic infraction typically charged between .05 and .07 BAC; per se DWI (§ 1192(2)) begins at .08; Aggravated DWI (§ 1192(2-a)(a)) begins at .18. Leandra’s Law makes DWI with a child aged 15 or younger in the vehicle (§ 1192(2-a)(b)) a class E felony on a first offense, and VTL § 1198 mandates ignition interlock devices for misdemeanor and felony DWI convictions. A second DWI within ten years is a felony under § 1193, and a chemical-test refusal triggers a separate DMV hearing under § 1194 that can revoke a license for at least a year regardless of the criminal outcome. Staten Island cases are heard in Richmond County’s courts — the smallest and, practitioners often note, most tightly knit court community in the city, where four decades of local practice and a prosecutorial alumni network are practical assets. None of this is legal advice; consult a licensed New York attorney about your situation.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
The case for McKernan is depth of local standing: nearly half a century in practice, senior trial experience inside the borough’s own DA’s office, a clean disciplinary record across that entire span, and a national DUI-defense advisory role that independently validates the DWI concentration. For a Staten Island defendant whose case will be heard in Richmond County, that combination is hard to replicate.
The honest trade-offs, stated plainly: this is a general practice, not a DWI-only firm — clients wanting a lawyer who does nothing but impaired-driving defense will find that model elsewhere in this directory. The consumer review record is thinner and more mixed than the category’s boutiques, including a sub-4-star aggregate on one platform. And the firm publishes no DWI case-results record, so the track-record evidence is structural (career history, peer standing) rather than outcome-by-outcome.
Methodology & Sourcing
This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys in August 2026 without the participation, sponsorship, or payment of The Law Firm of Kevin P. McKernan. Primary sources: the firm’s website (kmckernanlaw.com), including the attorney biography. Independent verification: Avvo attorney profile (1978 New York bar admission, currently registered, no misconduct found; DUI/DWI practice concentration; office at 7247 Amboy Road); National College for DUI Defense member profile and Member in the Spotlight feature (career history, Trial Advocacy Board role); Martindale/Lawyers.com firm profile (Distinguished peer rating, 2021); Experience.com aggregate consumer rating (3.87), disclosed in Client Voice. Address note: current directory listings show 7247 Amboy Road, Staten Island, NY 10307, while an older Yelp listing shows 503 Mosely Avenue — the discrepancy is disclosed rather than silently resolved. Statutes cited in the New York Legal Backdrop were verified against New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §§ 1192, 1193, 1194, and 1198.
Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice
Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal-directory publisher. This profile was not paid for by The Law Firm of Kevin P. McKernan, and inclusion in our editorial coverage cannot be purchased. Our methodology and editorial standards are applied consistently across all firms we cover.