Kathryn Karcher

KKarcher@bohmwildish.com

Summary

Kathryn Karcher has practiced exclusively appellate law for more than 30 years. She has handled appeals and writs as lead counsel in many areas of civil law, including real property, zoning, municipal finance, tax, probate, tort, contract, family law, animal welfare, and anti-SLAPP. She regularly advises trial lawyers on appellate issues during and after trial.

Kathryn became an avid bicyclist in law school. After graduation, she rode her bike across the country, starting at the coast in Florence, Oregon and ending in Boston, Massachusetts. When cycling became hard to fit into her busy life as a lawyer and mother, she took up running and ran in many races, sometimes pushing her kids in a racing stroller.

In 2005, Kathryn remarried and moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington, but her practice has always been based in California.

Education

• University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, J.D.
• University of California, San Diego, BA magna cum laude

Admissions

Kathryn is admitted to the California State Bar Association, the Washington State Bar Association (currently Pro Bono Status), the United States Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She was a member of the Washington DC Bar Association for three years.

Awards, Honors, and Professional Activities

• Best Lawyers: Kathryn has been selected more than 20 times for the Best Lawyers in America list, including Lawyer of the Year in Appellate Practice for San Diego in 2017 and 2024.
• Super Lawyers: Kathryn has been selected for 35 Super Lawyers lists, including the San Diego Top 50 Lawyers and Top 25 Women Lawyers lists. Kathryn was also selected four times to Washington state’s Super Lawyers list. It is rare for a lawyer to be selected in more than one state at the same time.
• Best Law Firms: Kathryn’s professional services corporation was selected 13 times as a US News and World Reports Best Law Firm.
• California Academy of Appellate Lawyers President: Kathryn is a past president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
• Additional honors and activities: Kathryn has chaired the California State Bar’s Committee on Appellate Courts and the San Diego County Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section twice (the only person who has done so). She has served on the California Supreme Court Historical Society Board of Directors, the Appellate Law Advisory Commission to the California Board of Legal Specialization, and was a Certified Appellate Specialist for 19 years. She co-founded the San Diego Gerald Brown Appellate Inn of Court and was a Master in the San Diego Appellate Inn of Court.

Notable and Representative Matters

• Kathryn successfully represented the Padres Major Leage Baseball Club in appeals that decided whether voter-approved Petco Park would be built (Nos. D035599, D035585, D040627).
• Kathryn defended the City of Los Angeles against a challenge by animal rights activists seeking to close the LA Zoo’s new elephant exhibit. The Zoo prevailed in a unanimous California Supreme Court decision (No. S232622, published).
• Kathryn represented Network Solutions in an appeal concerning whether the domain name sex.com was properly transferred (No. 01-15899, published). The Ninth Circuit affirmed most of the judgment in Network Solutions’ favor.
• Kathryn successfully challenged a trial court contempt order, injunction, and trade libel judgment against an inventor of unconventional medical devices (D028639, DO29533, published).
• Kathryn successfully represented a Ventura County couple in a water rights case that threatened to deprive their home and orchards of water (No. 279391).

Notable Pro Bono Matters

• Kathryn has done substantial pro bono work, including two appeals resulting in published opinions (Nos. DO30834, D06295) and a third appeal in which she authored an amicus curiae brief that the Court of Appeal requested (D035476, published).
• Kathryn represented a prisoner serving a life sentence without the possibility of release in clemency proceedings in Washington state.