David Rudovsky was a founding partner of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg. He has devoted his practice to civil rights and criminal defense litigation for over forty years. During this time, he has been involved in some of the most important litigation in Philadelphia and the nation concerning police and governmental misconduct, prisoners’ rights, first amendment freedoms, and racial discrimination. His far-reaching cases have established landmark decisions furthering the civil liberties and civil rights of persons who seek redress from the government and of criminal suspects and defendants.

Mr. Rudovsky has argued two significant civil rights cases in the United States Supreme Court: Mitchell v. Forsyth (1985) (immunity of Attorney General for illegal electronic surveillance) and City of Canton v. Harris (1989) (liability of municipalities for civil rights violations by police). He has also prepared numerous amicus briefs in civil rights cases in the Supreme Court and has argued scores of significant civil rights and criminal law cases in the federal and state courts.

Since 1987, Mr. Rudovsky has been a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he teaches courses in Constitutional Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, and Evidence. At the Law School, he has received the best teacher award on three occasions and is the recipient of the University’s Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Mr. Rudovsky has written a number of important books for lawyers who litigate civil rights and criminal cases. These include Police Misconduct: Law & Litigation, Pennsylvania Criminal Law, and The Law of Arrest, Search and Seizure in Pennsylvania. In addition, Mr. Rudovsky has written a number of scholarly articles in law reviews on civil rights and the criminal justice system. He is a frequent lecturer in legal seminars and CLE’s, and has been active in the training of lawyers and judges.

Mr. Rudovsky is President of the Board of Directors of the Defender Association of Philadelphia and has served as President of the Board of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project. From 1983-1987, he was First Assistant Defender at the Defender Association.

In 1986, Mr. Rudovsky was a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his work in Criminal Justice. He has also been honored by the Philadelphia Bar Foundation with the Judge Gerald F. Flood Award for Public Interest Accomplishments, the ACLU Civil Liberties Award, and the Philadelphia Bar Association Cesare Beccaria Award for Criminal Justice.