Cozen O’Connor associate Kendall (Kelly) Hayden has been named a 2008 Texas Super Lawyer – Rising Star by Law & Politics. Rising Stars names the top young lawyers in Texas as chosen by Law & Politics and through independent research. All Texas Rising Stars are 40 or younger or have been in practice for 10 years or less. Only 2.5 percent of Texas attorneys are named Rising Stars. Texas Rising Stars, representing more than 60 practice areas, is published annually.

Resident in the Dallas office, Hayden practices with the Insurance Department. She focuses her practice primarily in property insurance coverage, insurance defense litigation and commercial litigation. She has co-authored "Recent Developments in Insurance Coverage" for the Winter 2005 and 2006 editions of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Law Journal. She is a member of the Pro Bono College of Texas.

Hayden is a graduate of Texas A&M University (B.A., 1999) and Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law (J.D., 2003), where she served as editor-in-chief of the Computer Law Review and Technology Journal. She participated in oral advocacy by serving on the Texas Young Lawyer’s Association (TYLA) Moot Court Team, the Administrative Law Moot Court Team, and the Federal Bar Association Thurgood Marshall Moot Court Team, where she finished as National Champion and Second Best Oralist. She also participated on the National Mock Trial Team.

Hayden was a member of the Mac Taylor Inn of Court, received the Second Year Excellence in Advocacy Award from the Board of Advocates, and was named to the National Order of the Barristers. She speaks fluent Spanish and translated the 1998 Houston Bar Association Consumer Law Manual from English into Spanish.