Rachel Marblestone Kamins, Principal

Criminal Defense Litigation And Appeal

Practice Areas

Awards

Practice Focus

Ms. Kamins works as a criminal defense attorney, and represents defendants at every stage of the criminal defense process in both state and federal courts. Her practice areas include state and federal appeals, state and federal post conviction proceedings, federal habeas corpus actions, sentence modifications and correction of illegal sentences. Additionally, she handles drug and alcohol treatment proceedings, probation violation, parole matters, misdemeanor and felony trials, and grand jury investigations.

Education

• B.A., Brandeis University, 1989.
• J.D., University of Maryland School of Law, 1992.

Bar and Court Admissions

• State of Maryland
• United District Court for the District of Maryland
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Supreme Court of the United States

Points of Distinction

Acknowledged by her peers for her outstanding professional achievements, Ms. Kamins has been named a Maryland Super Lawyer and a Washington, DC Super Lawyer in 2010, and a Maryland Super Lawyer in 2012. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. She also served as chair of the Maryland State Bar Association Criminal Law and Practice Section Council from 2009-2010.

Activities

In addition to serving on the Council of the Maryland State Bar Association Criminal Law and Practice Section as an ex officio member, Ms. Kamins is a member of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys Association. She presently serves on the Alumni Board of the University of Maryland School of Law.

Publications/Speeches

Lecturing on various criminal law topics, Ms. Kamins speaks to prosecutors, judges, and police officers throughout the state. In 2011 and 2012 Ms. Kamins has participated in multiple legal seminars at Roxbury Correctional Institution and the Maryland House of Corrections in Hagerstown, and has been asked to speak at similar seminars at Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland.

• On April 29, 2010, Ms. Kamins made presentations at the Legal Awareness Seminar at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, MD;
• In December 2009, Ms. Kamins made presentations at the Legal Awareness Seminar at Jessup Correctional Institution in Jessup, MD;
• On May 30, 2009, Ms. Kamins made presentations at the Legal Awareness Seminar at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, Maryland;
• On February 7, 2009, Ms. Kamins made presentations at the Legal Awareness Seminar at the Maryland Correctional Institution—Hagerstown, in Hagerstown, Maryland;
• In January 2009, Ms. Kamins made presentations at the Legal Awareness Seminar at the Jessup Correctional Institution in Jessup, Maryland

She also has drafted legislation and has testified before the Maryland General Assembly on a number of bills relating to the practice of criminal law.

Previous Work

Ms. Kamins’ career as a criminal defense attorney consists of a nearly two decade, diverse criminal practice. After law school, Ms. Kamins spent a year as a judicial law clerk overseeing a criminal trial docket. In 1993, Ms. Kamins joined the Office of the Attorney General's Criminal Appeals Division, where she represented the State in all types of criminal appeals in the Court of Special Appeals, the Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. She also handled federal habeas corpus cases in the United States District Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2004, Ms. Kamins went into private practice where she represented criminal defendants in a number of different and state and federal criminal appeals. She has also handled post conviction and coram nobis cases, sentence modifications, a wide variety of post-trial and post-sentencing motions, federal habeas corpus cases, probation and parole matters, and some district and circuit court trials in Maryland and the District of Columbia.