Katharine brings to her law practice considerable international experience. In 2011, together with an international team of attorneys, Katharine represented the Media Legal Defence Initiative, Media Rights Institute, and Index on Censorship in their intervention before the European Court of Human Rights in a case involving the free expression rights of Azerbaijani youth activists; she also assisted in the preparation of comments submitted on behalf of several leading U.S. media companies to the British Ministry of Justice and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill regarding proposed libel law reforms. Additionally, Katharine served as the Legal Education Specialist for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative (formerly ABA-CEELI) in Baku, Azerbaijan; was a Fulbright scholar in Croatia; and worked in the post-war former Yugoslavia as well as in Germany. She is fluent in German, conversational in Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian and Spanish, and speaks basic Azerbaijani.

Notable Representations

Webb v. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 2011 WL 4062488 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 13, 2011), reconsideration denied ,2011 WL 4916341 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 17, 2011). Katharine, together with Lee Levine, Jay Ward Brown, and Ashley Kissinger, successfully defended CBS against claims that it invaded plaintiffs’ privacy and caused emotional distress by filming them in the backyard of a home in connection with CBS’s reporting on an ongoing murder investigation. The court granted summary judgment in a decision that constitutes a significant precedent vindicating the news media’s right to photograph persons and activities in “plain view” from a public street.

Enterline v. Pocono Medical Center, 2008 WL 5192386 (M.D. Pa. Dec. 11, 2008). Katharine and Gayle Sproul successfully defended The Pocono Record in its effort to quash a subpoena seeking the identities of people who posted anonymous comments on the newspaper’s website. The court held that media companies have standing to assert the First Amendment rights of the anonymous posters. This opinion appears to be the first to so hold, and thus represents a critical extension of the fast-evolving body of law related to the unmasking of anonymous online speakers.

East Stroudsburg University Foundation v. Office of Open Records, 995 A.2d 496 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2010). In a case of first impression, Katharine and other LSKS attorneys successfully obtained records held by a government contractor. The court embraced their expansive interpretation of the new Pennsylvania Right to Know Law, ruling that contractors must disclose all records directly related to the activities they perform for the government.