Kathryn Eidmann

Lecturer

Betsy Beers & Bruce Cormicle Senior Supervising Attorney, Opportunity Under Law, Public Counsel

Background:

Kathryn Eidmann is Director of Litigation at Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono public interest law firm. Kathryn leads and directs Public Counsel’s impact litigation across its eight legal projects. Kathryn previously served as the Supervising Senior Attorney of Public Counsel’s Opportunity Under Law, where she developed, led, and supervised complex impact litigation to advance economic and racial justice.

Kathryn has litigated major cases in the areas of education equity, children’s rights, gender discrimination, criminalization of poverty, immigrants’ rights, housing and homelessness, and the rights of low-wage workers. She has particular expertise in litigation and advocacy to reform education, child welfare, and other systems to address the needs of children impacted by trauma. In 2019, she received a California Lawyer of the Year award for her appellate advocacy in People v. Duenas, a landmark California Court of Appeal opinion establishing that courts may not impose mandatory court fees on indigent criminal defendants. 

In addition to her work at Public Counsel, Kathryn teaches in the Appellate Litigation Clinic at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, where she has previously taught education equity and gender discrimination law.  She is a frequent speaker on education equity and economic justice issues, and her work has been covered by national and local news media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, and PBS News Hour.

Ms. Eidmann is Vice President of the Board of Library Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles and serves on the board of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.  Kathryn was previously appointed to the Commission for Community and Family Services, advising the City of Los Angeles on issues of poverty and the needs of children, youth, and their families.

Kathryn previously practiced law at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas B. Griffith of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

keidmann@publiccounsel.org

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