Kate Burdick, Esq.

Senior Attorney

Kate Burdick is a Senior Attorney at Juvenile Law Center with over a decade of experience advocating for youth in the justice and child welfare systems. She first started at Juvenile in 2009 as the eighth Sol and Helen Zubrow Fellow in Children's Law, then later served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow (sponsored by Greenberg Traurig, LLP) and Staff Attorney. Between fellowships, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Michael M. Baylson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  

Kate utilizes litigation and policy reform strategies to further Juvenile Law Center’s mission of advancing rights, dignity, equity, and opportunity for youth in the child welfare and justice systems. During her time at Juvenile Law Center, Kate has represented youth in dependency court and education proceedings; conducted trainings for child-serving professionals and youth; written amicus briefs, publications, and external communications; and worked closely with Juvenile Law Center’s Youth Advocacy Program. Kate focuses on keeping youth in their communities and out of carceral settings, as well as expanding and enforcing the rights of court-involved young people to fair and humane treatment and quality educational opportunities. 

Kate has been actively involved in two successful federal lawsuits challenging solitary confinement and other conditions in juvenile prisons and continues to litigate to protect the rights of incarcerated young people. She also helped to successfully overturn the adjudication of Jordan Brown, who was wrongly accused of murder at age 11. Kate has helped change state and federal law and promote administrative guidance to increase education supports and protections for court-involved young people.  

Kate graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she pursued internships, clinical programs, and other opportunities focused on children’s rights, international human rights law, and immigration.  Kate graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a double concentration in Public Policy and Hispanic Literatures and Cultures, and studied abroad in Seville, Spain. Between college and law school, she taught at the American School of Guatemala and volunteered at a group home in Guatemala City.  

 

Photo Credit - B.C.

Articles and Publications

Nadia Mozaffar, Kate Burdick, Maura McInerney, Kristina Moon, Katherine Dunn, Stephanie C. Burke & Dr. Naomi E. Goldstein, CREDIT OVERDUE: HOW STATES CAN MITIGATE CREDIT TRANSFER PROBLEMS FOR YOUTH IN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM, Juvenile Law Center, Education Law Center, Drexel University & Southern Poverty Law Center (2020).

Karen U. Lindell, Danielle Whiteman, Kate Burdick & Riya Saha Shah, IMPROVING ACCESS TO CAREER PATHWAYS FOR PHILADELPHIA’S CHILD WELFARE AND JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM INVOLVED YOUTH, Juvenile Law Center (2017).

Katherine Burdick, We Must Improve Education for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System, in Juvenile Justice: A Reference Handbook, pp. 132-36. Eds. Donald J. Shoemaker & Timothy W. Wolfe, 2016.

Katherine Burdick, Jessica Feierman, Catherine Feeley, Autumn Dickman, Robert G. Schwartz, Building Brighter Futures: Tools for Improving Academic and Career/Technical Education in the Juvenile Justice System, 2015.

Katherine Burdick, Jessica Feierman, and Maura McInerney, "Creating Positive Consequences: Improving Education Outcomes for Youth Adjudicated Delinquent," Duke Forum for Law & Social Change, Vol. 3:5, 2011