Katharine Whitney – Durango Criminal Law

Katie has been standing up for people in Court for twenty years.
Katie was born in Boulder in 1975, and she spent the majority of her childhood on the Western Slope of Colorado. Katie went to law school at the University of Denver where she had her first clients in the Criminal Clinic. She graduated in 2004 in the top 16% of her law school class and was invited to be the Key Note Speaker for the Clinical Programs 100-year Anniversary Gala in 2004.

Katie knew from the first time she stepped into a courtroom that she was (and is) instinctively a defender, and she has spent the last twenty years standing up for people in court. Katie started her legal career as a public defender in the Denver trial office, where she was doing (and winning) jury trials before she passed the bar exam. As a public defender, Katie had a reputation for her outstanding trial advocacy. She represented thousands of clients and handled every kind of criminal case. She developed her litigation technique as well as important negotiation skills that often saved her clients years in prison.

Katie is a well-known and respected defense attorney in Colorado. She has built her reputation having done almost 100 jury trials in courtrooms all over Colorado and litigating countless Constitutional and other legal issues in court. Katie is a natural at trial work and in the courtroom. People often tell her she looks like she’s having fun, and that is probably true. Yet, it is her relentless drive for better, for each client, and for the legal system as a whole that stands out, and ultimately gets her clients results. Katie has the difficult conversations. She pushes when others might back down. Simply put, she does not give up. Her “North Star” is that she would want a true fighter on her side if she were standing in her clients’ shoes. She aspires to and delivers on that value in defending each and every client.

Katie has had notable cases in local and Statewide-media over the years. In 2019, Katie and her husband Brian tried a serious sexual assault case that not only resulted in the dismissal of all charges against her client, but also resulted in the court setting aside convictions for two other co-defendants who were represented by different attorneys, with one walking out of prison a free man and the other getting his sentence drastically reduced. Katie treats every case, whether it’s a DUI or a sex assault as a unique challenge, and she works tirelessly to get the best result, which is often outright dismissals, no-file agreements, greatly reduced plea offers, and acquittals.