Meet Delaware’s Most Influential People in law in 2024

Kathleen Jennings: Delaware Attorney General

Kathy Jennings, a longtime prosecutor, runs the Delaware Department of Justice in her role as the statewide-elected attorney general. She is the top decision-maker and manager of an office that is responsible for putting people in prison, providing legal counsel and civil defense to a large contingent of state bureaucrats and employees and that also acts on behalf of Delawareans filing litigation against polluters and other interests. Her influence extends beyond the implementation of law and into the formation of law through the influential lobby efforts of her office in the Delaware General Assembly.

Collins Seitz Jr.: Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice

The influence of the Delaware Supreme Court bears upon everything from how local police can treat the homeless all the way up to how the nation's richest corporations compensate their leadership. Collins J. Seitz is the court's chief justice. The court is the primary outlet for criminal defendants to appeal their convictions and also has oversight of appeals from the Court of Chancery, the nation's foremost business court. Seitz's role also functions as the administrative head of the state's court system, setting operational procedures, signing off on budgets and serving as a primary face in the court’s interaction with the state legislature. He's been a motivating force in a larger effort to diversify Delaware's overwhelmingly white legal community and spearheaded changes to the Delaware Bar.

Kevin O'Connell: Delaware Office of Defense Services, chief defender

O'Connell leads the Delaware Office of Defense Services. The office represents adults and juveniles who are accused of crimes and can't afford an attorney. The office employs 75 full-time attorneys, as well as a staff of interpreters, investigators, social specialists and others. Under O'Connell's leadership the office has continued to grow its focus on wholistic representation of its clients, seeking to meet their needs in court, but also the needs that contributed to them becoming involved with the justice system. In addition to serving a vital purpose in the justice system, few voices have been louder than O'Connell's and those on ODS staff in pushing reforms to our broken criminal justice system.

David Weiss: Delaware federal prosecutor, Hunter Biden prosecutor

Weiss is the last U.S. Attorney appointed by former President Donald Trump to have not been replaced by President Joe Biden. His job is to manage the office that prosecutes federal crimes in Delaware: think deportation cases, a drug dealer here and there and one time, unsuccessfully, a handful of former bank executives. His true influence is centered on his long-running pursuit of charges against Biden's son, Hunter. Weiss is currently pursuing a firearms prosecution against Hunter Biden in Delaware and a far more involved tax case against the president's son in California. And the case and Weiss' oversight of it has been fodder for congressional Republicans seeking to cast Hunter's foibles as election-year problems for his father. Recently, Weiss' work has undercut that effort with his prosecution of a former FBI informant his office claims lied to federal investigators about allegations central to the Republican impeachment proceedings.

Javonne Rich: ACLU of Delaware, policy and advocacy director

The ACLU of Delaware has been a primary voice in the state's General Assembly advocating for social justice reforms in recent years. Javonne Rich is the policy and advocacy director for the organization, leading a team of individuals spearheading change on topics including reproductive freedom, criminal law reform, immigrants’ rights, education equity, LGBTQ rights, free speech, privacy and voting rights. She also co-authored an investigative report on the state's probation system, which has served partially as a framework for proposed reforms being debated by the General Assembly. A licensed clinical social worker, Rich is also a past founding board member of Delaware Alliance Against Sexual Violence and currently serves as a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights Delaware Advisory Committee.

Robert Coupe: Delaware's legal marijuana czar

This is Delaware so of course the first top regulator for recreational marijuana sales has probably the most extensive cop resume in the state. Robert Coupe spent decades rising to the rank of colonel and office of superintendent in the Delaware State Police. He went on to be secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, a cabinet-level position that oversees the State Police and other law enforcement. He was also the commissioner of Delaware's Department of Correction and chief of staff for Attorney General Kathy Jennings, the state's top prosecutor. He was most recently working as chief of staff of the Delaware Department of Technology and Information when Gov. John Carney picked him to be the state's first marijuana czar. Last year, Delaware lawmakers approved the legalization of recreational marijuana and now Coupe will be responsible for setting up an oversight office to set regulations and issue licenses for the industry in Delaware scheduled to get off the ground in the coming year.

Delaware Corporation Law Council

Delaware is in a unique position as the nation's incorporation capital and so it essentially provides governing corporate law for companies operating across the country and globe. That means the people who set, modernize and tweak those laws have significant influence on how business is done everywhere. That responsibility largely rests with the Delaware State Bar Association's Corporation Law Section. The group is comprised of a collection of elite attorneys who each year propose changes to what is known as the Delaware General Corporation Law. The changes are often, but not always, passed with little debate from lawmakers in the Delaware General Assembly.

Doneene Damon: Richards Layton & Finger and the Delaware Prosperity Partnership

When the popular Freakonomics podcast came to Delaware to do a somewhat unflattering take on the state's outsize influence on corporate law, Doneene K. Damon's role in the program was as cheerleader for what the broadcast critically referred to as the Delaware Way. She is the immediate past president of the prominent Richards Layton & Finger law firm and chair of the Corporate Trust and Agency Services Group. Her influence goes outside law as well as she was chair of the board of directors of Christiana Care, the state's largest healthcare provider as well as a board member of the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, a private organization that doles out state economic development grant money.

Kathaleen St. J. McCormick: Delaware Court of Chancery, chancellor

When it comes to officials in Delaware's legal community, nobody has seen their name in the national press in recent years as much as McCormick. She is the head of Delaware's Court of Chancery where the nation's biggest corporations go to litigate billion-dollar disputes. She has a supervisory role over different aspects of the court's operation, like which judicial officer presides over which case, and also presides over cases herself. She's seen the national spotlight in recent years from her rulings on the business of the world's richest man, Elon Musk. In 2022, she presided over litigation involving Musk's attempts to abort his purchase of social-media giant Twitter. Last month, Musk directed his online ire at the court after a ruling by McCormick struck-down his $55 billion compensation package at Tesla.

Julianne Murray and Jane Brady, attorneys

When it comes to conservative influences in the legal community Julianne Murray and Jane Brady have taken an active role in both litigation as well as local politics. They argued two of the cases striking down recent legislative changes expanding mail-in voting, early voting and same-day voter registration, affecting how tens of thousands in Delaware are allowed to cast their ballots. Murray also has been involved in cases involving local environmental regulations as well as conservatives' attempts to intervene in the Hunter Biden cases. Murray was elected chair of the Delaware Republican Party late last year, succeeding Brady, who is also a previous Delaware Attorney General and Superior Court judge.

Dan McBride: Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust, deputy attorney general

Dan McBride recently took over leadership of the office of Civil Rights and Public Trust within the state's prosecutors office. The office is responsible for investigations and prosecutions of hate crimes, crimes by state officials , as well as investigating whether police uses of deadly force could be considered a violation under Delaware law. Delaware does not have an independent inspector general, the state's Public Integrity Commission doesn't have much policing authority and members of the state's General Assembly rarely raise questions about corruption. Additionally, Delaware's public records law affords police departments, and state government more generally, wide latitude to hide telling documents from the public. So McBride's office is an important one, and, as of now, the only one with real power to police the police. Prior to his current position, McBride was the unit head over the department’s Violent Criminal Enterprise Unit and has held other prosecutorial leadership positions. His most prominent prosecutions include murder trials involving local gangs.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Here are Delaware’s most influential people in law in 2024