Jennifer A. Russell
About
Des Moines Trial Lawyer
Jennifer graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1996 with a B.A. in Criminology with honors on the Dean’s List. She graduated from Creighton University Law School in 2000. While in law school, she was the winner of the Domestic Moot Court Competition and her criminal law article was published in the law review.
From 2000-2003, Jennifer practiced in all areas of family law, juvenile law and criminal defense at a private practice in Des Moines.
From 2003-2007, she was a prosecutor with the Warren County Attorney’s Office. She handled all criminal offenses, including simple misdemeanors, indictable misdemeanors and felonies. As a Warren County Assistant Attorney, she led the juvenile delinquency docket, and handled numerous jury trials including several felony drug cases and a vehicular homicide.
From 2007 to 2014, Jennifer was an assistant public defender in Des Moines. She handled a very high caseload of felony criminal offenses, including sex abuse, burglary, robberies, felony assaults, vehicular homicides, felony kidnapping, felony drug offenses, thefts, all property crimes, stalking, and at least 10 Class A kidnapping and murder cases.
From 2014 to 2015, Jennifer was the lead felony prosecutor at the Story County Attorney’s Office and main sex abuse prosecutor. Jennifer took on a leadership role in the office training younger attorneys, police officers, SART nurses, etc. She also helped to prosecute one murder case in Story County. Jennifer is an experienced trail lawyer, averaging 6-8 jury trials a year for the past 15 years.