Mr. Kenniff was born in Brooklyn in 1975 and grew up in Massapequa, in a waterfront house on the South Shore of Long Island. He attended the University of Rochester, where he majored in history. And he began to consider the possibility of being a lawyer, in part because of the unlikely influence of the actor Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n
Whatever part he was playing, you wanted to do that, Mr. Kenniff said. I saw Days of Thunder, I wanted to be a racecar driver. I saw Cocktail, I wanted to become a bartender.<\/p>\n
The movie that really influenced Mr. Kenniff was A Few Good Men, in which Mr. Cruise plays a member of the Judge Advocate Generals Corps, military lawyers who prosecute and defend members of the armed services.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Hofstras law school, and spending several years at a law firm and the Westchester district attorneys office, Mr. Kenniff began the commissioning process. In early 2005, he was deployed to a military base right outside of Tikrit, Iraq.<\/p>\n
While abroad, he defended soldiers who were charged with violations of military law and provided counsel to soldiers and civilians. He also sweated out a number of rocket attacks, said his roommate, Major Robert Kincaid, who added that Mr. Kenniff soon got used to the strikes.<\/p>\n
We heard the alarms go off and I was like, Oh, were supposed to go to the shelter, Mr. Kincaid recalled. And he looks at me and goes, Are you going to do that? I think its safer in here.<\/p>\n
Mr. Kenniff returned to the United States toward the end of 2005 and after about six more months as a prosecutor in Westchester, he left the office to start a law firm with another veteran, Steven M. Raiser, where over the past 15 years he has done defense work for a wide range of clients.<\/p>\n
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See the original post:<\/p>\n
Thomas Kenniff, Manhattan D.A. Candidate, Sees a City on the Brink - The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mr. Kenniff was born in Brooklyn in 1975 and grew up in Massapequa, in a waterfront house on the South Shore of Long Island. He attended the University of Rochester, where he majored in history Continue reading