Darlene Kennedy has served as Visiting Professor of Law at Widener University, Howard University, Catholic University, and the University of Baltimore. From 1998 to 2002 she was a member of the faculty at the Regent University School of Law in Virginia. In 2002, she received a presidential appointment from George W. Bush and served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice.

Ms. Kennedy is an advocate of community service and is presently an Associate Member of the Baltimore City Planning Commission; member of Unsealed Initiative, an organization advocating legislative change to adoption laws in New York State; member of Baltimore City's Citizens Review Board (formerly Baltimore City Foster Care Review Board). She has also served on the Department of Justice's National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women.

She received her B.A. from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1988, her J.D. in 1991 from Syracuse University College of Law, and her LL.M. in Tax Law from the University of Baltimore in 1996. She is admitted to the New Jersey and District of Columbia bars; but is most proud of being mom to her son, TJ.