Mary Kate's paralegal career began in 2000 as a litigation paralegal at Wiley, Rein in Washington, D.C. At Wiley, Mary Kate's work for a major trade association of top insurance companies included serving as Chair for the Insurance Environmental Litigation Association's bi-annual Seminar in Hartford, Connecticut in 2001. In 2002, she joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where she eventually became a Senior Litigation Legal Assistant.  At Simpson Thacher, Mary Kate served as lead paralegal on a complex, multi-week securities trial in federal court (D. Del.), and later managed a major 9/11 litigation for several years. She joined Herrick in 2006.