Kathleen Smith
Litigation Attorney Manager
Originally from Trumbull, Connecticut, Attorney Kathleen Smith earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and then taught eleventh grade before exploring her passion for law. She earned her Juris Doctor from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, California.
Kathleen comes to the Pendleton Law Team with a wealth of experience as a trial attorney. Prior to joining our firm, she merged her passion for education and law by serving as an adjunct professor teaching Business Law with Strayer University for nearly a decade. Since 2007, she has focused exclusively on personal injury cases including car accidents, pedestrian accidents and catastrophic injury cases.
She is also very experienced in the courtroom, having represented hundreds of criminal defendants in her former position as a criminal defense attorney for Virginia’s Indigent Defense Commission. As our Litigation Manager, she leads our entire Personal Injury litigation team advising, consulting, and mentoring attorneys and paralegals while also handling her own caseload.
As a personal injury attorney, Kathleen has renewed passion for her calling every time a client thanks her through tears of joy for winning their case. “I had a client who was in Section 8 housing be able to purchase a house for their family,” she stated.
“The Pendleton Law Team's core value of ‘We Respect All People’ aligns with my personal core values the most. I strongly believe all people should be treated equally with respect and courtesy. When I’m in court, I treat the bailiff and clerk with the same respect as I do the judge and my client. Even extending this respect to the counsel on the opposing side.”
When she’s not making a difference in the lives of her clients and our firm, Kathleen loves spending time with her husband, Dennis, and their two gorgeous Great Danes, two crazy cats, and a squirrel that her husband nursed from just a few days old and is now 4 years old! She also enjoys gardening, volunteering at the local SPCA, and traveling to Las Vegas.
