Office of General Counsel

Kate came to Brown University in May of 2019 after more than a dozen years as Vice President and Senior Counsel of Employment & Litigation at Citizens Bank.  Prior to joining Citizens, Kate was a labor & employment litigator at Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston and Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP in both Boston and Providence. 

As Deputy General Counsel for Litigation and Employment Law, Kate is responsible for advising the University on all labor and employment matters, as well as managing the University’s broad litigation portfolio.  She partners closely with division heads, human resources, compliance personnel, and key stakeholders to meaningfully provide advice and respond to and defend litigation or agency inquiries regarding employee relations functions as well as a broad range of litigation and investigations in a complex, fast-paced environment. Kate also leads employee and manager training with an eye towards compliance practices and risk mitigation and throughout her career has been a frequent speaker on a variety of labor & employment topics, ranging from wage and hour issues and ADA/FMLA concerns to the impact of social media on the workplace and related privacy implications.

Kate graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. from Providence College and earned her J.D. from Boston University School of Law and her M.P.H. from Boston University School of Public Health, while serving as the school’s Health Law Fellow.  During law school, Kate served as a Note Editor on BU Law School’s American Journal of Law & Medicine.  Kate currently serves as an adjunct professor at Providence College, where she teaches business law.