Katharine J. Galston’s practice focuses on appellate litigation. Ms. Galston has authored numerous appellate briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals, California Courts of Appeal, and California Supreme Court on many areas of law, including labor and employment, entertainment, trademark, copyright, complex commercial contracts, construction, energy, unfair competition, trusts, family law, insurance, class actions, attorney’s fees, punitive damages, and federal jurisdiction.
Ms. Galston also has extensive experience litigating entertainment, intellectual property, employment, and complex commercial cases at the trial court level. Ms. Galston regularly advises clients on legal strategy issues in trial court litigation, including on case-dispositive and post-trial motions.
Ms. Galston’s significant representations include—
- representation of large accounting firm in connection with putative class actions challenging accounting firm’s classification of junior accountants as exempt from overtime
- representation of family trust in the appeal of a case concerning breach of duty by trustee, which resulted in appellate court affirming multi-million dollar judgment (the highest damages award ever entered against an individual trustee) in favor of client
- representation of large retail company in connection with putative class action challenging form of wage statements under California law
- representation of research hospital in the appeal of case concerning royalty payments, which resulted in the appellate court affirming multi-million dollar judgment (the largest damages award ever affirmed by the California courts) in favor of client
- representation of major profit participants in one of highest-grossing motion pictures of all time in prosecution of accounting and breach of contract claims.
Additionally, Ms. Galston has provided pro bono representation in appeals related to asylum and child support. Ms. Galston is also a member of the California Appellate Project panel, which represents indigent appellants in California’s Second District Court of Appeal.
Ms. Galston received her J.D. cum laude in 2003 from NYU School of Law, where she served as an editor of the Annual Survey of American Law, was named a Robert McKay Scholar, and received the Judge Abraham Lieberman Award for outstanding scholarship in criminal law. She received her B.A. cum laude and with honors in classics in 1998 from Dartmouth College.
After earning her law degree, Ms. Galston served as a law clerk to the Honorable Reena Raggi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
Ms. Galston is a member of the California and New York Bars and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and 2nd Circuits, as well as the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Ms. Galston is a member of the Program Committee of the American Bar Association’s Council of Appellate Lawyers and a member of the Appellate Courts Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Ms. Galston has been named one of the Southern California Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars in appellate law (2009-2011).