Kristen W. Novay

Kristen chose to practice criminal defense after her experience working with the Georgia Innocence Project, working to free people who were wrongfully convicted and help them rebuild their lives. “I loved helping people, especially in this project. It's an extra check on the justice system, which is desperately needed because people's lives, their families, their money, and certainly their freedom, depend on it. There was nothing else that I wanted to do with my life and criminal defense quickly became my passion,” she said. 

Kristen gained experience in both defense and prosecution at the state and federal levels in Virginia and Tennessee before returning to her hometown of Atlanta. She worked at the Nashville Office of the Public Defender as an investigator and law clerk, interned at the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia, and the Richmond Commonwealth Attorney's Office. She quickly ruled out prosecution work and became an associate at a criminal defense law firm in Richmond, VA before joining Garland, Samuel & Loeb. 

Today, she practices in both state and federal courts. Kristen has appeared in courts in Georgia, Virginia, Arizona, Tennessee, Indiana, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, D.C., and Alabama. She has worked on appeals in the Fourth Circuit, Eleventh Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.