Kara Morrow
Counsel
Director of the Pro Bono Practice Center
Kara brings a longstanding commitment to serving others to the K&S Pro Bono Practice Center where she oversees a pro bono program that spans from helping small businesses to providing legal assistance to asylum seekers.
Kara is an accomplished litigator with deep federal law experience. Having worked in private and non-profit sectors, she is skilled in complex cases, investigations and client service. Her work has yielded significant positive outcomes not only for her corporate and individual clients, but also for vulnerable populations, including children in foster care.
Prior to K&S, Kara practiced civil rights law with the renowned non-profit law firm, Children’s Rights, reforming state foster care systems through litigation and strategic advocacy. Kara began her legal career at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Clifford Chance LLP in New York, representing global clients in a broad array of matters, including substantial pro bono work.
Before law school, Kara worked as a legislative associate in Washington, D.C. where she drafted policy statements and lobbied members of congress on welfare reform, immigrant rights and economic development in low-income communities. She began her career as a caseworker in Newark, N.J. providing in-home assistance to families at risk of child abuse and neglect.
Experience
Some of Kara’s representative matters include the following:
- Conducted a multi-year investigation of the Massachusetts child welfare system and brought a federal class action civil rights lawsuit on behalf of children in foster care.
- Monitored and enforced compliance with a landmark consent decree reforming the District of Columbia foster care system.
- Appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court in a dispute regarding attorney’s fees in a federal civil rights action.
- Received the Thurgood Marshall award for representation in post-conviction death penalty case.
- Won asylum for a detained pro bono client from the Republic of Guinea.
- Obtained reversal of a client’s wrongful conviction and incarceration in collaboration with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Kara speaks French.
Education
- J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 2002
- B.A., Georgetown University, 1995, major in History
Admitted to Practice
- New York
- U.S. District Courts, Southern and Eastern District of New York
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, D.C. Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court