Kristen Gibbons Feden will likely always be remembered as the powerhouse attorney who took “America’s Favorite TV Dad” to task and prevailed.
Securing a guilty verdict for the aggravated indecent assault against Bill Cosby was a challenge, but left in capable hands, victory was won. Here’s what you should know about the woman who made it happen:
Feden followed an untraditional path to her career as an attorney:
According to her LinkedIn page, Feden first attended Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., where she majored and received a BS in neuroscience. A New York Times interview points out that the New Jersey native had hopes of becoming a doctor, but chose a different path following sage counsel from her sister. After working as a financial specialist at Bloomberg in New York City, she enrolled in law school at Temple University. There she received her JD.
She is a wife and mom of two:
Feden’s husband, Nicholas, is also a practicing attorney in the state of Pennsylvania. Both attended and graduated from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. According to A Montgomery County Court news blog, the couple has two sons together — Nicholas Jr. and Ethan.
The Bill Cosby case wasn’t her first time trying a sex crime case:
In 2012, Feden joined Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County district attorney’s office and soon began working on sex crimes and elder abuse cases. After the verdict in the Cosby case that put Andrea Constand, a former employee of the Temple women’s basketball team, up against the former TV dad and Temple University trustee, Feden told CNN, “I was so happy for Andrea. I was so proud of her. And I was so happy for victims just everywhere… it was a very awesome message to victims.”
Feden was a prosecutor in the first Bill Cosby case that ended in a mistrial:
Last week’s win was a long time coming for the ascending prosecutor once named as one of Philadelphia Business Journal’s “40 Under 40 Living The Dream.” According to her professional profile on the Stradley Ronan website, in the original Commonwealth v. William H. Cosby, Feden was responsible for drafting and litigating pretrial motions, giving the opening statement and questioning key witnesses.
For the Bill Cosby re-trial, Feden served as a special prosecutor on the case:
In between the first time the Bill Cosby case went to trial, and the more recent retrial, Feden left her position at the district attorney’s office and started a new position as an associate at the Philadelphia-based law firm, Stradley Ronon. To make sure she finished what she started, the 35-year-old took a leave of absence from her job to secure a guilty verdict during the retrial.
