Kathy is driven to help people during the most vulnerable times of their lives—after the loss of a loved one or a catastrophic injury that permanently changes the course of their future. Every client who comes to her for help does so for two reasons: 1) so that their tragedy was not in vain, and 2) to make the community safer so that other families do not needlessly suffer in the future. It is her honor to support her clients through their grief and fight for systemic changes that will prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future. No matter how big or rich a company she goes up against, she will fight for change that makes New Mexico families safer and more secure.
In her more than 20 years practicing law, she has made valuable contributions to her community as well as her clients. Kathy began her legal career as an Assistant Public Defender fighting for individuals’ constitutional rights and promoting all individuals’ rights to effective counsel. Since entering private practice, she has helped many injury victims and their loved ones find justice and compensation after facing a tragedy. She works toward these same goals in her community activism and through her professional associations. Kathy recognizes that today’s youth are caring, innovative and hold the key to our future, so she dedicates much of her time and energy toward mentoring young people interested in the legal system and community activism. She contributes her time and energy to worthy pro bono cases such as representing young women subjected to domestic abuse, standing up against racist organizations and protecting our electorate.
With her deep compassion and proven skill as an advocate, Kathy is an attorney you want on your side during a difficult fight. Her impact can be seen directly in the results she has gotten for her clients. In 2014, she and her firm earned a $67.3-million verdict in 2014 against Biotronik for offering kickbacks to a doctor for implant a pacemaker into a patient who did not need it. The 23 other people who were also defrauded into pacemaker implant procedures by the same company and doctor obtained settlements shortly after the verdict.
She will work and fight hard to prove her clients’ cases. Kathy has been seen wearing a hard hat, investigating a copper smelting plant, testing faulty heaters (with safety precautions in place) that had caused numerous deaths, investigating dangerous roadways and the scenes of accidents and crimes, and interviewing witnesses all around New Mexico. The one consistent thread in all her cases is that she puts herself in the shoes of the people who were wronged and battles the corporate or government wrongdoers until justice is done.
Even when she’s not at work, Kathy’s strong sense of justice drives her. She has served on multiple boards of directors for organizations like the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, which she co-founded around a campfire with like-minded wilderness lovers and which now has a staff of almost 20, hundreds of members, a nearly $2 million budget and has protected nearly 2 million acres of public land. She was President of NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico, and served on the boards of Equal Access for Justice, the New Mexico Innocence and Justice Project, and other charitable and professional groups. When help is needed, she is among the first to step forward. Her work demonstrates the depth of her commitment to helping her community and those around her.
When she isn’t fighting for justice in the courtroom or giving back to the community through charitable and professional organizations, Kathy is focused on her first love, her family. She likes to dance with her son, backpack in the wild of New Mexico, travel the world, read, learn new things, and meet people with different backgrounds and experiences than her own.
