Attorney E. Kate Cohn
About
E. Kate Cohn has worked with Andrea Lyon since 2019, and she enthusiastically joins the Lyon & Kerr team as a fierce advocate for the firm’s clients. Ms. Cohn works tirelessly to understand the details of each case and to find the facts or errors that may have been overlooked by prior attorneys. She specializes in appellate writing and all stages of the post-conviction process.
Ms. Cohn manages all aspects of client cases, including the creation of trial testimony abstracts, indexing and review of discovery, conducting legal research for issue spotting, developing investigative plan, writing motions, petitions, memorandums of law, and preparing witnesses for trials, evidentiary hearings, and clemency hearings.
Since becoming a practicing attorney, Ms. Cohn has successfully litigated a significant sentence reduction under People v. Buffer, assisted in matters which resulted in the exoneration of a wrongfully convicted individual, and petitioned for clients’ clemency multiple times before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
Ms. Cohn received her Juris Doctorate from Seattle University School of Law in December 2020, and she took and passed the Uniform Bar Exam in February 2021. She is licensed in Illinois and Washington state.
During law school, Ms. Cohn also interned with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, externed with the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel; and externed with the Washington State Division II Court of Appeals. Ms. Cohn was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and moved to Tacoma, Washington to attend college. She received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of Puget Sound and her M.A. in Student Development Administration from Seattle University. She worked in higher education for more than fifteen years before becoming an attorney.
Areas of Practice
- State & Federal Criminal Defense
- Assault / Aggravated Assault
- Attempted Murder
- Battery / Aggravated Battery
- Drug Crimes
- Expungements / Record Sealing
- Homicide and Murder
- Manslaughter
- Motions to Suppress Evidence
- Pre-Trial Negotiations
- Preliminary Hearings
- Robbery
- Sex Crimes
- Violent Crimes
- Weapon Offenses
Bar Admissions
- Illinois, August 24, 2021
- Washington, June 8, 2021
Note: Admission granted after passing the Uniform Bar Examination in February 2021
United States District Court Northern District of Illinois, Pro Hac Vice, November 5, 2021
Education
- Seattle University School of Law Seattle, WA
- Juris Doctor December 2020
- Seattle University Seattle, WA
- Master of Arts, Student Development Administration June 2004
- University of Puget Sound Tacoma, WA
- Bachelor of Arts, Sociology May 2000
Honors and Awards
- Commencement Speaker, Seattle University School of Law, December 2020
- Fredric C. Tausend Moot Court Competition Participant Seattle University School of Law, January 2019 (Selected based on appellate brief)
Publications
- Federal Habeas Corpus: Cases and Materials, 3d. Ed. (with Andrea Lyon, Emily Hughes, and Justin Marceau), Carolina Academic Press, 2024.
- Juvenile Sentencing at the Crossroads, Ill. B.J., Mar. 2023, at 34.
- When the Home Team Calls Their Own Balls and Strikes: The Problem of Brady Violations, Accountability, and Making the Case for a Washington State Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct, 19 Seattle J. Soc. Just. (2020).
- Andrea D. Lyon, Fixing Legal Injustice in America: The Case for a Defender General of the United States, Rowman & Littlefield 2022. (Research and writing assistance.)
- Andrea D. Lyon and Hannah Brooks, Stepping Towards Justice: The Case for the Illinois Constitution Requiring More Protection than Not Falling Below “Cruel and Unusual” Punishment, 41 N. ILL. U. L. REV. 47-65 (2021). (Research and writing assistance.)
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Illinois State Bar Association
- Washington State Bar Association
- National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
- Chicago Bar Association
- Washington Defender Association