Kenyon College
University of Akron School of Law. Photo: JEN9841, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_Akron_Law.JPG)
Kenyon College
University of Akron School of Law. Photo: JEN9841, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_Akron_Law.JPG)
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Aretta Kanakaredes Bernard was born on June 27, 1962, in Akron, Ohio, to Harry Nicholas Kanakaredes and Constance Eva Temo Kanakaredes. She grew up in an Akron family of Greek-American heritage. Her father owned and operated the Dewitt Jenkins Insurance Agency for many years.
Bernard studied political science at Kenyon College and received a bachelor's degree in 1984. Kenyon, founded in 1824 in Gambier, Ohio, is a private liberal arts college known for undergraduate education in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Akron School of Law in 1987. The law school, established in 1921 and later incorporated into the University of Akron, developed professional legal education in Northeast Ohio and included Bracton's Inn, a student-managed appellate moot-court program focused on legal research, brief writing, and oral advocacy.
Bernard began her legal career as a judicial clerk with the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1987 to 1989. The court hears federal appeals from Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee and is headquartered in Cincinnati, placing her early professional work within the federal appellate system.
From 1989 to 1996, she was an associate at Roetzel & Andress in Akron. The firm, founded in Ohio and headquartered in Akron, provides legal services in litigation, business, government, employment, and other practice areas. Bernard became a partner in 1996 and continued her association with the firm in Akron.
Bernard also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Akron School of Law from 1988 to 1989. Her professional admissions include the Ohio bar in 1987, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 1983, and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1990.
Bernard has been a member of the American Bar Association, the Akron Bar Association, and the Ohio State Bar Association. These organizations support legal professionalism, continuing education, professional standards, and the administration of justice at national, local, and state levels.
Bernard married Dale Anthony Bernard on November 27, 1988. Her parents were Harry Nicholas Kanakaredes and Constance Eva Temo Kanakaredes. She is the sister of Lia Shiekh and actress Melina Kanakaredes.
He owned and operated the Dewitt Jenkins Insurance Agency for close to half a century.
She is an American actress known for television and film roles.
