Debra S. Katz is an American civil rights and employment lawyer and a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin (formerly Katz, Marshall & Banks) in Washington, D.C. She is best known for representing alleged victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment, notably Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Vanessa Tyson, Chloe Caras, and accusers of Congressmen Pat Meehan and Eric Massa, and whistleblowers facing retaliation, including most recently Dr. Rick Bright. Katz's primary practice areas at her firm are employment and whistleblower law, where she represents victims of workplace discrimination and retaliation.
Early life and education
Katz was raised in Woodmere, New York as a Reform Jew. and graduated from George W. Hewlett High School. In 1980, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Union College and in 1984, a J.D. cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School where she was a member of the Wisconsin Law Review and as Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Women's Law Journal. She ultimately left the Wisconsin Law Review and founded the Wisconsin Women's Law Journal because she believed the former lacked racial diversity.
In her first year of law school, she began to glimpse how sexism played a role in the legal profession when she noticed that her class discussions were predominately led by men. Upon confronting one of her professors about this issue, he immediately denied it and then later apologized to the class after noticing the behavior to be true.
Career
After law school, Katz clerked for Judge William A. Bablitch on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and held a Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship at Georgetown University Law Center.
Notable clients
Former Washington Football Team Employees
Alongside Lisa Banks, Katz represents 40 former employees of the Washington Commanders. The clients accused the organization of fostering a toxic and abusive work environment for years, in which women were frequently subjected to sexual harassment. After these allegations were reported on by the Washington Post, the team hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation, which was later taken over by the NFL. The team was fined $10 million after the investigation was completed, but the full results have not been made public. Katz and Banks have been vocal critics of the NFL and its Commissioner Roger Goodell for their refusal to release the investigative report.
Dr. Julian Craig
Debra Katz represents Dr. Julian Craig, the former Chief Medical Officer of United Medical Center in Southeast Washington. In November 2017, Dr. Craig testified at a D.C. Council hearing regarding unsafe and fraudulent practices being implemented by Veritas of Washington, a consulting firm contracted to manage the hospital. Following his testimony, Dr. Craig was terminated by the D.C. Council.
Janet Herold
Debra Katz and Alexis Ronickher represented Janet Herold, a senior attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor who filed a whistleblower complaint against then-Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia. According to Ms. Herold's complaint, Scalia abused his power as secretary and intervened in settlement discussions involving a company with ties to the Trump administration. When she objected to his actions, she was reassigned to a non-legal position in Chicago. After filing an official whistleblower complaint, she was terminated, though she was later reinstated.
Accuser of Congressman Pat Meehan
Debra Katz and Alexis Ronickher represented a former aide to Congressman Patrick Meehan who accused the Pennsylvania representative of sexual harassment. Meehan and the aide reached a confidential settlement using taxpayer money, which became public in January 2018. A few months later, Meehan resigned from Congress before the House Ethics Committee could complete its full investigation.
Accuser of Congressman Eric Massa
Katz represented a former staffer of Congressman Eric Massa in his sexual harassment complaint against Massa. Stories published in NBC, Politico and the Washington Post detailed the egregious sexual harassment suffered by many of Massa's staffers, and the power structure put in place to facilitate such behavior. Massa resigned in March 2010, during a pending House Ethics Committee investigation. In November 2017, it was reported that a number of Massa's former staffers were paid nearly $100,000 of taxpayer funds in settlements.