Kathryn Smith Root BS ’80, JD ’84

Kathryn Smith Root BS ’80, JD ’84, a senior shareholder/family law attorney at Gevurtz Menashe in Portland, currently serves as the American Bar Association’s advisor to the Uniform Law Commission’s drafting committee on judicial interview procedures for children in family court proceedings. The committee is charged with drafting a uniform or model act addressing procedures to be followed when the child’s views are to be heard in such cases.

Kathryn Smith Root BS ’80, JD ’84 was reappointed as chair of the ABA Family Law Section’s International Law Committee, effective August 2016. For 26 years, Root has focused her practice on family law, with an emphasis on international family law and custody disputes. She is a shareholder of Gevurtz Menashe.

Kathryn Smith Root BS ’80, JD ’84 received the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Coast Guard Public Service Commendation on October 15, 2015, during the American Bar Association’s Family Law Section Fall Conference, held in Portland, Oregon. The award recognizes Root’s contributions to the U.S. Coast Guard’s 13th District’s Legal Assistance program from 2001 to 2015.

Kathryn Smith Root BS ’80, JD ’84 was named a shareholder of Gevurtz Menashe. Root became of counsel with the firm in 2012. Oregon Women Lawyers (OWLS) also announced that she will receive the 2014 Katherine H. O’Neil Volunteer Service Award, in honor of steadfast dedication and long-term volunteer service promoting women in the legal profession. Root focuses her family law practice on divorce and post-divorce cases involving complex property and financial issues, interstate and international child custody disputes, Hague child abduction matters, and relocation. She is a leading authority on interstate and international custody in the United States, having handled more than 100 contested interstate custody cases. Root also litigated the first petition filed in the U.S. District Court for Oregon under the Hague Convention in 1997.

Kathryn Smith Root BS ’80, JD ’84 became the anchor partner and partner-in-charge of the newly opened Portland office of McKinley Irvin, a Seattle-based family law firm. Root, formerly a shareholder of Johnston, Root & Leibenguth, will continue to handle a broad range of family law cases with specific emphasis on interstate and international family law disputes, including international child abduction cases. She can be reached at 1500 S.W. First Avenue, Suite 920, Portland, Oregon 97201, 503-226-7986, kroot@mckinleyirvin.com.