Overview

Catherine is the Professional Support Lawyer for Mayer Brown’s US Litigation & Dispute resolution practice and a member of the firm’s Knowledge Management Department. Using her extensive litigation experience, she advises and supports practice while collaborating with other KM professionals, firm management, attorneys, and marketing professionals on operational, educational, and innovation initiatives. Catherine also works with the firm’s Innovation and IT Departments to assess, develop, and implement technology that allows the firm’s lawyers to better leverage each other’s knowledge and promote the full application of the firm’s resources in serving client needs. Catherine frequently speaks on knowledge management and innovation topics at industry conferences, including LegalTech, LegalCIO, and Ark KM, as well as customer panels for KM tools such as Lex Machina and Westlaw Litigation Analytics. She is a member of the DC Legal Knowledge Management Group.

Catherine maintains an active pro bono practice representing refugees in asylum proceedings and sits on the Legal Advisory Committee for the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition. In 2019, she was named Mayer Brown’s Pro Bono Attorney of the Year in recognition of the 1600+ hours she had spent representing asylees from El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe. That same year, she was part of a team honored with CAIR Coalition’s Detained Adult Champion award. In 2018, she was Tahirih Justice Center’s Greater DC Pro Bono Attorney of the Year.

In her previous role as Counsel, Catherine’s practice focused on complex commercial litigation in federal and state courts, with a focus on securities and regulatory matters involving financial institutions and financial products. Her experience includes the defense of multiple major financial institutions in lawsuits brought throughout the US by purchasers and trustees of mortgage-backed securities offerings. She has also litigated matters involving commercial fraud and other business torts, banking regulation, internal investigations, consumer class actions, ERISA, cybersecurity and data privacy, professional liability, complex e-discovery, and privilege issues. Catherine was selected by the Super Lawyers rating service as a “Super Lawyer” in Commercial and Securities Litigation in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Catherine joined Mayer Brown in 2005 from another global law firm in Washington, DC, and took the position of US Litigation Professional Support Lawyer in 2016. From 2002 through 2003, she served as law clerk to the Honorable John P. Wiese of the United States Court of Federal Claims.


Areas of Focus

Practices
Key Issues

Spoken Languages

  • English
  • French

Experience

  • Defense of two global financial institutions in RMBS-related securities fraud lawsuits in New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Indiana federal and state courts, including the multi-billion-dollar litigation brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
  • Defense of a global provider of secure financial messaging services in two federal class actions claiming that responses to post-9/11 Office of Foreign Assets Control subpoenas violated state consumer protection laws, the First and Fourth Amendments, and the Right to Financial Privacy Act. Obtained voluntary dismissal of one action in Virginia federal court following a successful motion to dismiss for lack of standing; won dismissal with prejudice of second action in New York federal court and subsequent Second Circuit appeal.
  • Counseling of a multinational financial services and asset management company regarding the potential impact of Dodd-Frank regulations imposing enhanced supervision and prudential standards on non-bank Systemically Important Financial Institutions.
  • Defense of a global financial institution in a breach of contract and fraud lawsuit brought by a CMBS trustee in Illinois state court. After a four-week combined jury/bench trial, defeated fraud claim and obtained full indemnity for contract claim plus a $5.1 million attorneys' fees award.
  • Representation of a nonprofit family foundation in a federal court dispute related to its support of a landmark class action lawsuit against the US government for breach of trust duties to thousands of individual Native Americans.
  • Counseling of a global property and casualty insurer on interpretation and application of the federal securities laws in connection with coverage for claims related to the Madoff Ponzi scheme.
  • Representation of a global financial institution in connection with a DOJ investigation into alleged FIRREA and False Claims Act violations.
  • Defense of a financial institution in a $2 billion federal lawsuit related to the collapse of Global Crossing Ltd. Secured dismissal with prejudice of several claims and settled the remainder for favorable terms at close of discovery.
  • Defense of a multinational life insurance company in cases alleging federal securities law violations and consumer fraud in the marketing and sale of variable annuities.
  • Defense of a major home lender in California federal court against claims that mortgage servicing practices breached contractual and common law duties to loan purchaser.
  • Representation of a well-known R&B performer in Illinois federal and state court lawsuits seeking 50% of the profits generated by several successful musical works.
  • Defense of an asset manager in an Enron-related ERISA lawsuit in Illinois federal court. Settled on favorable terms on the first day of trial.
  • Defense of a multinational computer technology corporation and three of its senior executives in shareholder derivative and insider trading litigation in Delaware federal court.
  • Counseling of a US bank's outside directors in dual OCC and DOJ investigations into Bank Secrecy Act and money-laundering violations; although bank was subjected to more than $40 million in fines, outside directors were cleared of any misconduct.

Events

Education

New York University School of Law, JD
Dean’s Merit Scholar, 1999-2002; NYU Moot Court Board, Associate Casebook Editor; Co-Founder and Coordinator, Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation Project

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Humanistic Studies
Graduate Theological Union/UC Berkeley Joint Program in Jewish Studies (graduate coursework)

Stanford University, BA, with honors and distinction
Phi Beta Kappa, Robert M. Golden Medal for Excellence in the Humanities and Creative Arts, Kennedy Essay Prize in Jewish Studies, Rosaldo Lopes Honors Thesis Award in Feminist Studies.  

Admissions

  • Illinois
  • District of Columbia
  • California

Court

  • US District Court for the District of Columbia
  • US District Court for the Central District of California
  • US District Court for the Central District of Illinois
  • US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
  • US Court of Federal Claims

Activities

  • Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, Legal Advisory Committee
  •  Women’s Bar Association, Member
  • Tahirih Justice Center, Volunteer Attorney
  • National Immigrant Justice Center, Volunteer Attorney
  • Human Rights First, Volunteer Attorney
  • Children's Law Center, Volunteer Attorney