As legal director, Katie oversees the Reporters Committee's legal services portfolio, including it’s direct litigation and amicus practices, and supervises the team of staff attorneys and legal fellows working in both areas. She has led much of the Reporters Committee’s litigation work in public records, court access and legal defense cases. Under her leadership, in 2018 alone, Reporters Committee attorneys secured the dismissal of defamation claims against a journalist under the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act, obtained a first-of-its-kind ruling from an Oklahoma state court making clear that delayed access to public records violates Oklahoma’s Open Records Act, and defeated an agency’s attempt to charge a reporter more than $174,000 to obtain records he had requested under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Katie also manages partnerships where the Reporters Committee offers legal support and pre-publication review, particularly to documentary filmmakers and nonprofit newsrooms.
