Katie focuses her practice on the international ocean transportation industry. She regularly represents clients before the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in connection with regulatory requirements, adjudicatory proceedings, and fact-finding investigations. She also has experience representing clients in non-FMC maritime litigation and in alternative dispute resolution, such as arbitration before the American Arbitration Association. Katie has also assisted clients working to analyze the impact of Customs and Border Protection enforcement, including analysis of regulatory decisions under the Passenger Vessel Services Act and the Jones Act.
Katie has experience drafting vessel sharing agreements, space charter agreements, and other cooperative working agreements between ocean carriers as well as advising clients on a wide range of regulatory matters before the FMC. Katie also has a range of transactional experience, including assisting with vessel sale and purchase transactions, vessel charter agreements, and private equity investments in shipping.
She brings valuable leadership skills and insights gained through her military service as a legislative affairs extern, as well as through her work as a law clerk for the Wounded Warrior Project and as a congressional relations intern with the Government Accountability Office. Her approach to legal practice is also influenced by the business-mindedness she gained while working for three years for General Electric, where she held a supervisory role, completed a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification, and ran projects that saved the business tens of millions of dollars through initiatives to improve efficiency, and improve customer experiences during product transportation and delivery. In sum, Katie has well over a decade of experience in supply chain prior to and after attending law school.
Katie joined Cozen O’Connor as an associate after working as a law clerk for the firm’s Transportation and Trade group. Before attending law school, she served in the U.S. Army for more than five years, attaining the rank of Captain. Her service included combat deployments to Eastern Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division in 2013 and to Northern Iraq in 2010 with the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade. She also led soldiers on a two-month consequence management mission in Japan following the 2011 earthquake.
Katie also serves as co-chair of Cozen O'Connor's Associates Committee.