Katherine Sorrell

Katherine is an experienced attorney working at the intersection of civil rights, preservation or cultural heritage law, business and administrative law. She loves providing clients with pathways to resolving intractable problems—often against great odds and in the face of significant obstacles. She brings an entrepreneurial spirit to all of her work, using the law as one tool to build capacity for her clients and the communities she represents, and she is devoted to holding corporations accountable to their civil and human rights obligations.

Katherine specializes in representing descendant communities, Native American tribes, local governments, and other rightsholders in protecting, restoring, and defending their cultural heritage. When large scale development projects damage or risk damage to cultural resources—including sacred sites, traditional cultural places, burial grounds, archaeological sites, historic properties, or natural resources with cultural significance—Katherine represents her clients in efforts to hold developers accountable for mitigating, resolving, or compensating them for that damage.

Prior to entering law school, Katherine spent more than a decade working in organizational development for startup companies, philanthropies, and nonprofits and pursuing an academic career in social sciences. This work reenforced her passion for social justice and solving systemic problems, which led her to become an attorney. Katherine also worked for the Immediate Office of the Registrar at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, an international tribunal dedicated to prosecuting crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other crimes committed during the conflict in Kosovo between 1998 and 2000.