Debra S. Katz

Recognized by the Washington Post as “the feared attorney of the #MeToo movement,” Debra S. Katz has been successfully litigating employment discrimination, civil rights, and whistleblower protection cases for nearly 40 years.

Ms. Katz is a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin LLP, where she concentrates her practice on employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, whistleblower retaliation claims, and contractual employment disputes. She has developed extensive litigation experience in federal and local courts and has achieved significant successes in several high-profile cases. Some of her most notable clients include Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault during his confirmation hearings, and Dr. Rick Bright, a former official at the Department of Health and Human Services who was removed from his position in retaliation for raising concerns about the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Katz also represented multiple women who were sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein, as well as Irwin Reiter, a former Weinstein Company executive who provided critical information to the New York Times reporters who broke the scandal.

Ms. Katz has been cited as an expert in sexual harassment, employment, and whistleblower law by multiple outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and TIME Magazine. In 2018, she was honored as “Civil Rights Lawyer of the Year” for Washington, D.C. by The Best Lawyers© In America. She has been recognized as a “Top Lawyer” by Washingtonian Magazine since 2004, and in 2023 she was included in the magazine’s list of the 500 most influential people in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Katz received her Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, from Union College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D. degree, cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she served as a member of the Wisconsin Law Review and as Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Women’s Law Journal. Following law school, Ms. Katz clerked for the Hon. William Bablitch on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and held a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship at Georgetown University Law Center.