Blueprints to Special Education Online Workshop

Kathy has been in private practice for more than 17 years, focusing on education law and the public’s right to know about government. She has represented appellants and amicus parties in dozens of precedent-setting cases.

In the civil rights arena, she helps parents improve special education for children with disabilities. She also helps news organizations and citizens exercise their right to know under government sunshine laws, including handling the Seattle Times efforts to apply the Public Records Act to the controversial Northwest School of Innovative Learning (NWSOIL).  

Before practicing law, Katherine worked for 15 years as a political reporter and assistant city editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where she won the National Press Club Freedom of the Press Award in 1996 as well as various regional awards. She began her law career in 2005 as a law clerk to the Hon. Gerry Alexander, then chief justice of the Washington Supreme Court. Kathy’s legal work has been recognized with the highest possible Avvo rating (10) and designation as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine in 2013 and 2015. She was honored to receive The Arc of King County’s “Living Our Legacy Award” for children’s advocacy in 2017, and the Washington Coalition for Open Government’s James Andersen Award for public service in 2014.

Kathy is known as a passionate advocate both in and out of the courtroom. She was instrumental in the passage of House Bill 1240, the 2015 state law protecting vulnerable children from excessive physical restraint and isolation in public schools. She represented a coalition of children’s advocates in the landmark education funding case, McCleary v. State of Washington, and in more recent cases advocating for full funding of services and facilities for children with disabilities. She served for 8 years as Gov. Jay Inslee’s appointee on the State Sunshine Committee, working to reduce secrecy in state and local government. She co-founded the non-profit Attorneys for Education Rights, which advocates for children with disabilities in the legal and policy arenas, and currently serves as its vice president.