One of the lawyers who led the successful prosecution of Bill Cosby is heading over to the plaintiff's side, joining Philadelphia's Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky.

Kristen Gibbons Feden transitioned to private practice before Cosby's second trial wrapped up, joining Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young in August 2017. She joined the firm under a special arrangement that would allow her to take time away from the practice to finish prosecuting and trying the Cosby case, which ended in a guilty verdict in April 2018. Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison in September 2018.

Feden said she had spoken with a friend and former law school classmate, Saltz Mongeluzzi partner Jeffrey Goodman, about her passion for representing victims, and "he paved the way" for her to explore joining his firm, where she is now an associate.

Robert Mongeluzzi, founder of the firm, said he was already familiar with Feden from her "integral role" on the Cosby case.

"There was an immediate connection in that we share a passion for representing victims. It was just evident in meeting her," Mongeluzzi said. "She has investigated and prosecuted sexual assault cases and has that deep knowledge of the field."

Of the three prosecutors who handled Cosby's retrial—Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, Feden and M. Stewart Ryan—Feden was the first to meet Andrea Constand, the victim whose allegations against Cosby ultimately resulted in a guilty verdict and prison sentence. Feden questioned Constand when she took the witness stand at the retrial, and shared the closing arguments with Ryan, who now practices at Laffey, Bucci & Kent.

Feden joined the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office in 2012, and served in the sex crimes unit. She was promoted to captain of the domestic violence unit in February 2017.

In recent years, Feden said she has noticed a change in how people view victims of sexual assault. Society more often believes alleged victims, she said, and is "not automatically discrediting them" based on delayed disclosure or other factors that "have nothing to do with whether or not a person was assaulted." The #MeToo movement has helped that progress, as well as legislative action to extend statutes of limitations, she said.

"We're going to be fighting to make sure that continues," Feden said.

Feden said she learned a lot working at Stradley, but the move to Saltz Mongeluzzi was more in line with her passions as lawyer because "100% of their practice is dedicated to victims of accidents, crimes and other injustices."

Her first official day at Saltz Mongeluzzi was March 23. Joining a new firm in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, while a highly unusual experience, "was made really easy," she said, because the firm had the technology and flexibility needed to continue working with clients. Already, she said, she has been brought into ongoing cases against public and private institutions.

Stradley chairman William Sasso, who recruited Feden to the firm after reading about her work on the Cosby case, said she was involved with a number of investigations on behalf of the firm's corporate clients. But he understood her desire to focus on plaintiffs work, which she wouldn't be able to do at Stradley.

"It's more than just an occupation or profession. It's really a personal mission she has, which is kind of a continuation of her work in the District Attorney's Office under Kevin Steele, and she wants to continue that," Sasso said. "She's going to hit a lot of home runs over there."

Stradley has seen several significant departures in the last year or so. Michael Engle, who had been the firm's white-collar defense chair, left for Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney last fall, and Jonathan Grosser, who formerly led the firm's real estate practice, made a move to Royer Cooper Cohen & Braunfeld a couple months before that. The firm also lost a pair of restructuring partners in New York about a year ago to Blank Rome.

Saltz Mongeluzzi has also seen its fair share of change in recent months. In January, it brought on Steven Wigrizer, a founding partner of Wapner Newman Wigrizer Brecher & Miller, to chair the medical malpractice department. Then in February, name partner Michael Barrett left the firm to start his own boutique firm, Barrett DeAngelo, which focuses on medical malpractice.

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