Biography
Kristine knew from an early age that she was destined for trial work. Her dad was a prosecutor in Boston, MA, and she grew up talking about trials from an early age. He happily shared his enthusiasm for trial work, and they spent many weekend hours discussing current trials in the news or picking apart evidentiary holes during Law and Order marathons.
Her love for Maine was cemented during her time at Colby College. After college, she was determined to remain in Maine and attended the University of Maine School of Law. Before graduating in 2009, she represented the school in competition as a Maine Law Trial Advocacy Team member. She interned for the US Attorney’s Office in the District of Maine and was a student attorney in the Cumberland County DA’s office. As a student-attorney, she made her courtroom debut before she graduated. She represented the State in dozens of bench trials and as first-chair in a criminal jury trial.
After law school, Kristine quickly realized that while she loved trial work, she preferred working with individuals instead of as a prosecutor. She started a very successful criminal defense firm that represented thousands of Mainers over a 13-year time period in both State and Federal Court. She spent a decade as the defense attorney liaison to Cumberland County’s Adult Treatment Court, representing individuals in their efforts to exit the criminal justice system by focusing on their recovery.
As a criminal defense attorney, she was no stranger to trial work. She had successes in suppression hearings, secured acquittals in bench and jury trials, and argued to Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Most notably, in 2022, after six years of litigation, including two suppression hearings, dozens of motion hearings, a jury trial, and an appeal to the Law Court, she secured the only complete dismissal of a homicide case in Maine in at least 20 years.
She currently serves as the chair for the criminal law section and is a member of the legislative committee of the Maine State Bar Association, and serves as a Member of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s Advisory Committee on the Maine Rules of Unified Criminal Procedure. She has served on past First Circuit and Maine State Court committees. She continues to support Maine’s efforts to provide high-quality representation to indigent clients by teaching trial skills to attorneys engaged in indigent defense.
While building her criminal defense practice, Kristine became more involved in civil rights cases. In 2023 she joined Garmey Law to pursue her passion and embark on the next phase of her career as a trial attorney. She looks forward to combining her compassion for individual clients with her tenacity in the courtroom as she represents plaintiffs in their time of need.
Kristine and her husband are PADI-certified rescue divers and spent the first decade of their marriage jumping out of perfectly good boats in their pursuit of diving the world. They now spend more time swimming than diving as they spend time in the water with their young daughter.
Admissions:
- ME
- MA
- US District of Maine
- First Circuit