NANCY KARDON
FOUNDER- KARDON LAW
· Former Federal Prosecutor Turned State & Federal Criminal Defense Attorney
· Serving all California and Colorado State Courts
· Serving all Federal Courts nationwide
· Named Super Lawyer 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015
· Named One of Daily Journal’s Top Women Litigators in California
Nancy Kardon is the founder of Kardon Law, a Denver-based law firm focused on criminal defense in both state and federal court, on behalf of clients throughout both California and Colorado, and before federal courts throughout the country. With years of criminal defense experience and a lengthy stint as a federal prosecutor, Nancy is a veteran trial attorney and has extensive experience defending individuals in both white collar and general criminal contexts. She is particularly devoted to her extensive practice in the areas of domestic violence, sexual exploitation matters and cyber crimes, as well as in state and federal drug cases.
Nancy formed Kardon Law in 2006 and has managed the firm as her Colorado-based practice. Recently, she also launched Los Angeles, California-based offices, going by the firm name Robinson Kardon, with co-founding trial attorney Edward Robinson. Having bar memberships and domiciles in both California and Colorado allows her to practice in both states.
In her near decade of criminal defense practice, Nancy has made a name for herself with clients and within the criminal defense community for deliberately shunning the pervasive view that certain types of people accused of certain kinds of crimes do not merit a robust defense. She has passionately advocated on behalf of some of the most vilified, underrepresented and mistreated defendants in the criminal justice system today.
Part of her commitment to criminal defense was born out of her extensive time spent on the other side of the courtroom. Prior to working on behalf of defendants, Nancy spent eleven years as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office. During that time, Nancy prosecuted a broad range of offenses, including violent crimes (murder for hire, threats to kill, arson and kidnapping), large-scale drug trafficking, child exploitation, international contraband and human smuggling, fraud, computer crimes and immigration abuses. She wrote and argued numerous appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and her work on a landmark federal case earned her a nomination for a United States Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Prosecution. Also during her tenure as a prosecutor, Nancy was assigned to coordinate all prosecutions under the Violence Against Women’s Act, which included multiple lectures presented to law enforcement agencies and to local, state and federal prosecuting agencies about guns and violence. After 9/11, she began working on the Terrorist First Response Task Force, as the Chief Information Officer at the Central District of California Command Center.
Nancy began her legal career in labor and employment law, working as an associate with the venerable international law firm Paul Hastings. While there, Nancy represented employers on a broad spectrum of workplace-related matters, including class actions, wrongful discharge, discrimination, sexual harassment and labor-management litigation. It was her success in federal court during this period – winning or successfully negotiating settlement deals on all of her federal discrimination cases – that first drew her to the federal system and, ultimately, to the United States Attorney’s Office.
When not practicing, Nancy is active within the legal community. For three years, she served as an advisor for the Executive Committee of the State Bar of California, Criminal Law Section and became an active member of the National Association of Criminal Defense lawyers, the Association of Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys, The California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the Criminal Law Sections of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the South Bay Bar Association. She also served as an attorney for the Federal Indigent Defense Panel for the Central District of California. As a member of the Juvenile Courts Task Force Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar, Nancy created the Bar’s acclaimed mentorship program for emancipated foster youth.
Nancy obtained her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles and her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She is admitted to practice in California and Colorado and before the United States District Court for the Northern, Eastern, Central, and Southern Districts of California and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.