Kate Hardiman is a legal fellow at Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, a boutique D.C. law firm that specializes in constitutional litigation. She is concurrently obtaining her J.D. through Georgetown Law School’s Evening Program. In her current job, which is akin to a legal apprenticeship, she supports a team of lawyers with legal research, observes court arguments and analyzes the legislative history of state and federal public policies. Her favorite classes in law school have been Constitutional Law and Legal Writing.
Prior to law school and her work with Cooper & Kirk, Kate taught for two years at Holy Trinity High School in Chicago through Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Program. The ACE program equips recent college graduates with intensive M.Ed studies before placing them in high-need Catholic schools across the country. During her two years, Kate taught 9/11th grade religion and 10/12th grade English. Passionate about involving students in public policy and respectful discussion on hot-button issues, Kate also coached the school’s debate team.
In her spare time, Kate enjoys writing on a number of education-related issues. A regular contributor to the Washington Examiner’s opinion page, she has also published work in Real Clear Books, Education Post, The College Fix and Minding the Campus. She is currently co-authoring a book on education policy for the 21st century with her education law hero, Justice Clint Bolick (the litigator of the first Supreme Court voucher case and founder of school-choice litigation firm the Institute for Justice).
Through her experience teaching and writing, Kate developed an abiding belief in school choice’s ability to bolster underserved students’ educational chances. It was this belief that led her to study the law, as many of these policies are facing, and will continue to face, court challenges. She eventually hopes to practice education litigation to defend school choice policies and proactively help in their drafting so that they are able to withstand court challenges.