Kyle H. Keraga
Kyle's judicial experience touches all aspects of federal practice—including litigation in federal district court and appellate proceedings in two federal circuits. Before joining Venable, he clerked for Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Judge Richard D. Bennett of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. His district court judge routinely sat by designation with the Ninth Circuit, attending eight weeks of oral argument and assuming primary writing responsibility for 45 appellate cases.
Kyle graduated at the top of his class from the University of Maryland Carey School of Law with multiple honors and awards. In law school, he spent a full year interning in state and federal courts to sharpen his writing and gain real-world judicial experience. He competed on the National Moot Court Team and reached the finals of two intramural tournaments, earning recognition for his written and oral advocacy. He has also published constitutional scholarship focused on partisan gerrymandering and political participatory rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Experience
Representative Matters
Supreme Court
- Drafted Supreme Court, First Circuit, and district court amicus briefs on behalf of leading biomedical research associations in NIH v. American Public Health Association, a case challenging the government’s mass termination of NIH research grants
- Drafted a Supreme Court amicus brief supporting the respondent in FCC v. Consumers Research, presenting comprehensive constitutional arguments in favor of a more robust approach to the private nondelegation doctrine
- Coauthored a Supreme Court amicus brief supporting the petitioner in Barnes v. Felix, arguing that the Fourth Amendment excessive force inquiry should not be confined to the "moment of the threat.” This influential brief was discussed at oral argument and cited in Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence
- Drafted a petition for certiorari in Song v. Que, a case implicating the scope of Article V(2)(b) of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitration Awards and the effects of arbitral misconduct in a tripartite proceeding
Appellate
- Contributed to the briefing and argument in a DC Circuit appeal challenging the SEC’s approval and enforcement of FINRA Rules limiting parties’ right to arbitrate in a forum of their choosing under rules of their selection
- Coauthored merits briefs and motions in First Circuit and district court in connection with defamation claims brought by Maine lobster fisheries and industry coalitions against the publisher of a seafood periodical
- Contributed to the briefing and argument in a Fourth Circuit appeal addressing liability of alternative business lenders for facilitating high-profile multimillion-dollar fraud
- Coauthored an amicus brief in the Third Circuit on behalf of former congressional representatives discussing Congress’s intent to preempt the field of commodities trading on designated contract markets
- Drafted an amicus brief in the First Circuit, defending against a dormant Commerce Clause challenge, a Massachusetts statute prohibiting the sale of meat derived from livestock raised using gestation crates and other intensive confinement methods
Trial and Pretrial
- Coordinated a team drafting a complaint, preliminary injunction motion, and related filings in a lawsuit challenging the freeze and termination of more than $28 billion in EPA grants awarded under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program
- Assisted with the dispositive motions practice and argument preparations in a case addressing the constitutionality of agency adjudications under the Seventh Amendment, Article III, the Take Care Clause, and related constitutional provisions
- Assisted with the dispositive motions practice in a complex patent and antitrust suit brought by a pharmaceutical patent holder against competing generic manufacturers
- Drafted an amicus brief on behalf of an international payments industry council, challenging a state-law interchange fee prohibition that would undermine the international payment processing system
Insights
Credentials
Education
- J.D. summa cum laude University of Maryland School of Law 2021
- Order of the Coif
- Order of the Barristers
- William Strobel Thomas Prize for Highest Academic Achievement
- Sam Allen Memorial Prize for Excellence in Leadership and Scholarship
- Joseph Bernstein Award for Most Significant Student Publication
- Member, Editorial Board, Maryland Law Review
- Moot Court National Team
- Moot Court Board
- Moot Court Myerowitz Competition Chair
- B.S. Computer Science Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2015
- 149th Grand Marshal, Rensselaer Student Union
- Phalanx Leadership Honor Society
Bar Admissions
- Maryland
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
Clerk Experience
- The Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- The Honorable Richard D. Bennett U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland