HARRISBURG, Pa. (May 1, 2024) — Kristen B. Hamilton of the Law Office of Matthew S. Militello, Chambersburg, will become president-elect of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) at the conclusion of the association’s Annual Meeting on May 10 in Hershey.
Within the PBA, Hamilton is completing her service as co-chair of the Bar Leadership Institute (BLI), which develops future leaders of the association. She is a 2014-15 graduate of the BLI. Hamilton also is co-vice chair of the Planning Committee and a member of the Children’s Rights, Commission on Women in the Profession and Minority Bar committees, among others. She is a PBA appointed delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates and a Life Fellow of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the PBA.
Active in her county bar association, Hamilton is a former president of the Franklin County Bar Association, and chair of the association’s Social Committee and past chair of the Young Lawyers’ Division. She serves as secretary of the Franklin County Bar Foundation, the Judicial Liaison Committee and the local Custody, Juvenile and Orphans’ Court Rules Committees.
Engaged with her community, Hamilton provides pro bono services to qualifying families in need through Franklin County Legal Services, MidPenn Legal Services and Women in Need. She serves as secretary of the Local Children’s Roundtable for Franklin and Fulton counties. In 2015, she was invited by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Max Baer to serve on the Statewide Children’s Roundtable, promoting initiatives which strive to improve and positively impact the justice system for children and their families.
Hamilton focuses her Franklin County practice on cases directly impacting the lives of children and families, including all areas of family law, dependency and delinquency, and resentencing for adults previously sentenced as juveniles for life without the possibility of parole. She also has represented clients in criminal matters, such as prior certification in capital case representation. As of April 1, 2024, Hamilton serves as the Franklin County Juvenile Court hearing officer hearing both dependency and delinquency matters.
Hamilton received her undergraduate degree from Gettysburg College. She was a senior treatment clinical supervisor at Abraxas Youth Center before earning her Juris Doctor from Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg. She is a graduate of the Anne Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series, a Pennsylvania leadership program for women.