Posted on Monday, February 17th, 2025 at 4:05 pm
Attorney Kathleen B. McGivney joined the mass tort and personal injury teams at Wallace Miller in 2024. Through plaintiffs’ litigation, she works to make sure that individuals harmed by the actions of others get a chance to tell their stories and fight for compensation. She currently works on the hair relaxer, paraquat, and Suboxone litigations.
Attorney Kathleen B. McGivney
What made you want to be a lawyer?
I always knew that I wanted to be a lawyer. I don’t think I ever wanted to be anything else, you know, a journalist or a detective—I come from a family of lawyers, and specifically the women in my family inspired me to want to become a lawyer.
My mom, who grew up in Chicago, was the first person in her family to go to law school, which inspired other family members to go as well. It was notable that she not only got her college degree, but also decided to go onto law school and try to break into this field that was pretty much dominated by men at the time.
I’ve always admired my mother’s work ethic in addition to her ability to raise two daughters—she knew what she wanted to do, and she did it. And I found that to be a helpful path, to follow in her footsteps.
Was your experience during law school different from your mother’s experience?
They were totally different. Both of my parents obviously encouraged my sister and me to work hard, but now on a societal level, women are encouraged to go and conquer the world. And back when my mom was on the same path, many women didn’t even go onto college. It just wasn’t encouraged at the time. And so she and other women like her really cleared the path for younger women like me to make it and enter the field.
She does a different kind of work than me, she’s an attorney for the state government. But she gets it and often has good advice for me about how to handle certain day-to-day issues that come up in the field.
How did you end up working in mass torts and personal injury?
In law school, the firm I worked at specialized in personal injury and medical malpractice. I got a taste not only for litigation and big cases and trials, but for plaintiffs’ work specifically. I really enjoyed the fast-paced nature of it, and I loved the people I worked with.
I got to assist with a few trials, and I liked the thrill of things changing at the last minute, or the judge having a set understanding of the law and having to change their mind. And the outcome was positive in those trials, so we were able to help people get justice for themselves and their family after something terrible had happened to them. It’s fulfilling to be able to help provide that sense of closure.
I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but that solidified for me that I wanted to go into litigation and be in the courtroom.
Why do you think mass tort and personal injury is important?
Sometimes when bad things happen to people, it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault. But when it is, it’s important for us as a society to help the people harmed to get compensation and have their case heard in court. It’s important for people to be able to tell their story.
It’s a very good part of America—the strength of our justice system, specifically our civil justice system. In a lot of cases, the best way you can hold companies and powerful people and organizations accountable is by fighting for financial consequences.
How do you stay motivated when working on difficult cases?
It’s important to have a sense of perseverance and moving things forward. As lawyers, we can’t prevent the things that happen to people—we respond after the fact, after the terrible thing has already happened. And that can be heavy at times, but it’s important to remember that we need to keep moving forward. We need to see what we can do for these people now. And that’s the goal, at the end of the day—to keep moving things forward for our clients and their families.
To find out more about Kathleen, check out her full bio page here.