By David O’Boyle
October 15, 2017
With members in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, the D.C. Bar is beginning a regular feature to profile the people who make up our community. Read about your peers, their lives, and their work around the world.
去年夏天，贝克靠谱的滚球平台事务所的合伙人凯特·麦克奈特 & Hostetler LLP, 站在弗吉尼亚最高法院的法官面前, arguing her client’s side in a redistricting case while she was seven months pregnant.
“During oral argument, there came a point where it sounded like I was breathless,” says McKnight. “But it was just because I had this baby pressing on my lungs. I was thinking, I hope they don’t think I’m nervous or lack confidence in my argument.’”
McKnight, now a mother of two, says one of her biggest challenges is being both a good parent and a good lawyer. 这一切都是为了保持平衡, she says, speaking to Washington Lawyer over the phone for this interview while watching her daughter at a playground.
“I try not to get too far ahead of myself and focus on what people need now, including my daughter who’s giving me a stink face from across the playground right now,” she says.
McKnight says she tries to focus on spending quality time with her family, 也许只是在客厅给孩子们读书. “不一定是昂贵的旅行或玩具，”她说.
平衡之举仍在继续. “每个人都有很多事情要做. You want to be reliable and ensure people’s expectations are met. If you’re not able to be in the office until after you drop off a child, 你的同事知道你稍后会在办公室, 如果需要的话，他们知道如何联系你, 他们知道你会把工作完成. 它会带来舒适和信任，”麦克奈特说.
At Baker & Hostetler, McKnight’s practice is focused on commercial litigation and election law, litigating cases before federal and state trial courts as well as appellate courts. 麦克奈特说，当她成为该公司的一名助理时, 她知道她想成为一名诉讼靠谱的滚球平台, although she was still uncertain about what practice area she wanted to join.
帮助她确定自己的兴趣, 她签下了所有可能的诉讼项目, 向同事学习如何进行诉讼, manage a case, and staff a team. These lessons helped her build the skills and knowledge she needed to become a successful litigator, McKnight says.
“When I’ve heard about awful law firm experiences, it’s often due to poor management,” says McKnight. “你没有在法学院接受过管理方面的培训. 你只是被训练得很紧张.”
A graduate of Brown University, it seemed McKnight was destined for a career in law. 在2000年完成本科学业后, McKnight volunteered with the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association in Harare. There, she worked with women lawyers to research and lobby for sentencing guidelines for judges in cases involving murdered women.
麦克奈特说:“量刑的范围很广. “If it was a relative who murdered a woman, sometimes they were not sentenced for any time. If a stranger murdered a woman, sometimes they would be sentenced to life.”
From that volunteer work McKnight saw that a legal education would help her to not only further policy goals, 同时也帮助别人.
After a stint at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, McKnight attended the University of Minnesota Law School and graduated in 2008. At a time when hiring within the legal job market was plummeting, McKnight says she was fortunate to be offered a clerkship with Judge Claude M. Hilton of the U.S. 弗吉尼亚东区地方法院.
During her clerkship, 麦克奈特不仅观察并向希尔顿法官学习, 还有那些在他面前有案子的靠谱的滚球平台. “It was so helpful to see the variety of lawyering styles in the courtroom and in pleadings,” says McKnight. “我还发现，不同的风格适合不同的人, and that lawyers don’t need to have one particular style—you can pick what suits you best.”
McKnight witnessed a wide variety of litigators argue before the judge and realized that even the most experienced lawyers get nervous in the courtroom. “这非常人性化，”麦克奈特说. “Here I am, this fresh grad from law school, and I was reminded that we’re all human. I learned lessons about what really matters in advocacy, and it bolstered my confidence.”
At Baker & Hostetler, McKnight has developed a specialty in election law and has argued before the Virginia Supreme Court and in federal courts on redistricting cases. “It’s a fascinating area of law, and guidance from the courts is not always clear,” she says. “It’s an unusual area of law in which you feel a very direct impact of a Supreme Court opinion.”
作为诉讼合伙人, McKnight says one of her challenges is taking the lead in developing and then standing behind arguments for her clients. “There came a point where I was no longer an associate behind a desk doing research, 我成了我的客户辩护的代言人. 这是令人兴奋的一步, but you and your team have to do the hard work required to be able to stand up in such an adversarial effort; you play a mental game of reminding yourself that you’ve done everything right and that you’re standing for your client.”
Ultimately, McKnight says she finds the most satisfaction in representing her clients, 承担他们的焦虑, 管理他们的法律问题，这样他们就不用. “我一直很喜欢给客户带来安慰的感觉. There’s something so satisfying about putting a client’s mind at ease and showing them a way through the lawsuit.”
