Kathleen McCartan, Attorney

Kay McCartan's role at the firm is to support the trial lawyers by providing legal research and briefing to the courts both before and after trial. Kay does the meticulous, detailed and complex legal reading and writing that many trial lawyers do not have the patience, the interest or the aptitude for, but that play a critical part in making sure that a case actually gets to be heard and decided by a jury of citizens as guaranteed in our state constitutions and the United States constitution. After trial her duty is to make sure a just verdict is protected from relentless legal attacks from highly paid lawyers hired by the defendant corporations or insurance carriers to find a technicality, spin a clever argument or collect a political favor in order to throw out or reduce any verdict for the plaintiff no matter how just or correct the result might in fact be.

Almost always outnumbered and continually attacked from all directions and angles by big firm lawyers supported by small armies of law students, paralegals and consultants, Kay fights back day after day, often late into the night, as she and her small firm allies match point for point, brief for brief their opponents’ arguments. Kay has never had a case thrown out of court at the pretrial level or had a critical expert witness excluded from trial by the judge despite the fact that motions to dismiss and exclude are filed in nearly every case and often against every important witness in a case.

Hundreds of times, Kay has successfully defended the right of expert witnesses critical to the plaintiff’s case to testify. This is simply an amazing record given that cases are often tried in the defendant’s home town with conservative judges and juries in an era of increasingly hostile legislation and biased appellate court rulings influenced by the money and connections of the corporate powers that control such things. Most people not involved in the legal system have no comprehension of the degree and intensity of these hidden legal battles played out in the most biased and unfavorable environments imaginable. Unfortunately the search for truth by fair and impartial judges and juries has been replaced by modern legal warfare. Our rights and powers have been eroded, attacked, bought and sold and sometimes simply been ignored or given away by citizens of this country who are unaware of what is happening to their legal system. Lawyers like Kay quietly fight on, largely unrecognized and underappreciated as they try to save the remaining pieces of due process and trial by jury that remain in this country.

Kay grew up in a small town in Iowa, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marycrest College, a Master’s degree from Purdue University and a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. Kay is a former nun who spent almost ten years in the convent. After rejoining the real world and in the midst of raising a family, she decided to go law school. Her legal career involved a stint with Houston attorney, John O’Quinn. Kay is frequently teased by Mark about her checkered past and reminded that her former vows of poverty and chastity are not exactly in sync with the firm’s goals. Kay is a hopeless optimist who loves spoiling her grown children and her four grandchildren. She is addicted to politics, liberal causes, books and high maintenance dogs.