Katie began her legal career as a litigator as a deputy public defender in Santa Clara County. From there she entered academia at Santa Clara University School of Law, teaching Advanced Litigation and Criminal Procedure. She also served as a Supervising Attorney at Santa Clara’s Northern California Innocence Project, where she managed students and represented clients’ claims of factual innocence. She was an adjunct professor at Hastings College of the Law and Golden Gate University teaching Criminal Procedure and Litigation.

Katie graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1992. While in law school she co-founded the school’s Street Law Program. She also spent a semester abroad in South Africa, working for the African National Congress Constitution Committee during that country’s transition from Apartheid to a democratic government. Katie received her BA in history in 1988 from the University of California at Berkeley.

Katie has served on  the “CJA” (Criminal Justice Act) panel for the Northern District of California and received appointments on homicides through Santa Clara County’s Indigent Defender’s Office.