About Jennifer Matthews Law

Experience Matters When Your Future Is on the Line.

If you’ve been accused of a crime, everything can change in an instant. Your freedom, reputation, career, family, and future may all be at stake. During times like these, you need more than just an attorney – you need an experienced advocate who understands how Maryland’s criminal justice system works.

Having worked on both sides of the courtroom gives Jennifer a unique perspective that few attorneys possess.

Jennifer Matthews Kafes has spent nearly 25 years in Maryland courtrooms — first as a prosecutor, then as a defense attorney — and she brings that full picture to every case she takes on now.

Jennifer’s experience isn’t a talking point. It’s a working advantage. Jennifer knows how prosecutors build a case because she’s built them herself: what evidence they lean on, where their arguments are strongest, and — just as important — where they’re vulnerable. She uses that insider knowledge for one purpose: to defend her clients as effectively as possible.

Jennifer Matthews Kafes, Esq.
Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys' Association
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Maryland State Bar Association
AGC Seal
National College for DUI Defense

About Jennifer

Jennifer served as a prosecutor from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2017 to 2022 — more than seven years total — with over thirteen years on the defense side in between and since.

In 2026, she founded Jennifer Matthews Law to focus exclusively on criminal defense. Based in Baltimore, she represents clients throughout Maryland on traffic offenses, drug charges, DUIs, assaults, theft, robbery, and peace and protective order matters — with the same direct, no-nonsense approach: know the law, understand the other side’s playbook, and fight for the best outcome available.

Clients working with Jennifer get a lawyer who won’t sugarcoat the situation — and won’t back down from it either.

Jennifer Matthews Kafes
  • J.D., University of Baltimore School of Law, 2001
  • B.A., University of Maryland, College Park, 1995
  • Maryland (2001)
  • U.S. District Court, District of Maryland (2002)
  • Criminal Defense
  • Traffic Offenses
  • Drug Charges, DUI/DWI
  • Assault
  • Theft, Robbery
  • Peace & Protective Orders