Katie went to law school because she wanted to make a difference. She found her home at McGinn Montoya Love Curry & Sievers during her second year of law school, and she’s been making a difference ever since.
Katie has represented multiple survivors of sexual assault in cases that held corporations liable for their lax policies and supervision, which enabled sexual predators to serially abuse positions of power, such as doctors in prisons, and psychiatrists treating especially vulnerable patients. She has represented the family members of innocent bystanders killed in high-speed police pursuits, and victims of wrongful shootings by police officers. Her work has included medical malpractice, severe car and truck collisions, and cases holding corporations responsible for their decision to cut corners on workplace security to save money, in convenience stores and other settings.
She’s proud that her work has required corporate wrongdoers to settle their debts to her injured clients, but she’s even more proud of the changes these cases have made: a policy requiring a second health care worker in the room for any breast or genital examination in New Mexico prisons; a hospital holding an annual emergency department training on airway obstruction using her severely brain-injured client’s care as a case study; a policy requiring that family members be notified of a resident’s worsening condition in a company that owns nursing homes throughout the southwest. The part of the job that remains most rewarding is developing lasting relationships with her clients, who often become friends by the end of the case.
Katie also believes it is important to give her time to ensure the law continues to protect the rights of New Mexicans. She served for eight years on the Civil Uniform Jury Instruction Committee, and as chairperson in her last two years, working with other members of the bar to ensure jury instructions are clear and understandable to jurors at trial. She also serves as co-chair of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers continuing education committee, coordinating legal education programs for lawyers across New Mexico. She also participated in the effort to pass New Mexico’s new Civil Rights Act, which allows individuals to hold government agencies liable for wrongdoing in state court.
Katie earned bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and French at the University of Nebraska. There, she joined Order of the Coif and made the Dean’s List while working toward her Juris Doctor degree.
Katie loves reading, the outdoors, and spending time with her family either reading or outdoors.
