Katie is co-head of Akin's white collar defense and global investigations practice. She represents banks, private funds, corporations and their senior executives in investigations and enforcement proceedings arising under the federal securities and commodities laws. Ranked Band 2, she is described by Chambers USA as “outstanding: cool under fire, measured and a consummate strategic thinker.”

She helps clients navigate a broad range of criminal and civil matters involving:

• Accounting and disclosure fraud
• Insider trading
• Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering violations
• Conflicts of interest/self-dealing/bribery
• Market manipulation, disruptive trading and other trade practice violations
• Mismarking of complex products
• Cryptocurrency related-issues
• ESG-related issues
• SPAC-related issues
• Corporate culture issues and workplace misconduct.

An experienced trial lawyer, Katie’s practice builds on nearly 12 years of experience as a federal prosecutor where she served in several significant leadership roles. After joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in 2004, she prosecuted a wide range of matters involving accounting and disclosure fraud, insider trading, manipulative trading and investor fraud, among others, serving as lead trial counsel in numerous complex securities fraud cases. She was promoted to Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in 2015 after serving as Deputy Chief for one year, and before that Co-Chief of the General Crimes Unit for two years. 

During her nearly three years leading the securities fraud unit, Katie supervised a team of approximately 20 senior prosecutors in connection with some of the most complex and high-profile white collar and securities matters in the country. She led all aspects of the unit’s work from investigation through prosecution, spanning a broad range of matters, including supervision of the unit’s trials and appeals.

Katie is ranked by Chambers USA, where she is noted for her “strong reputation” and her “broad criminal defense practice” and where clients have described her as a “really excellent lawyer — very levelheaded, so smart and really able to get into the details.”

Katie is an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law where she teaches a seminar on Complex Federal Investigations. 

Katie received her B.A. magna cum laude in political science from Duke University, and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School where she was co-chair of the Harvard Law Review’s Supreme Court Issue. From 2000 to 2001, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Karen Nelson Moore on the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.