After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, Katie worked in New York specializing in finance at “big law” international law firms, primarily at one in a world-leading practice group. She returned to Houston after five years in New York and was an associate and then counsel at an international law firm. After realizing with a shock that she had been at law firms for seven years, she went to practice in-house and served as senior counsel and assistant general counsel for three years for an international power company headquartered in Houston. During her legal career she often found herself helping her colleagues and friends with recruiting and staffing issues, and career strategy and general career and life issues. After soul-searching in conjunction with career coaching with Dr. Helen Harkness in Dallas, she realized that what she wanted to do in her career was help people manage their own careers and in doing so, gain greater control and happiness.

Katie graduated from Smith College in 1997 and had a great time attending the London School of Economics for her third year of college. She is licensed as a lawyer in New York and Texas. She received her training with the Coaches Training Institute, is a Associate Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation and a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach.

Katie’s Coaching Philosophy

Work is what we do for the majority of our waking hours. If it isn’t working for us, it can have a significant impact on our non-working hours, as many of us have experienced. After ten years of practicing law, I found that the most rewarding practice I had was when I helped colleagues be strategic, identify their strengths and what skills they enjoy using and figure out how to capitalize on them. Seeing someone achieve a goal after using a strategy we developed together, or seeing a person blossom with confidence after using their innate strengths and learned skills have been some of the best moments of my working life. I’ve discovered that my forte is not fighting the other side as a lawyer, but rather championing individuals to believe in themselves and their abilities. When they do, the resulting confidence and opportunities that open up for them in their careers and lives is fantastic to see.