Kathryn Eidmann

Public Counsel's newly named President and CEO Kathryn Eidmann went to law school focused on becoming a professor, wanting eventually to write academic works on access to justice and other legal issues. That all changed during her first clinic in law school, she told Law360 Pulse in an interview.

"I did direct representation of asylum clients and other individual clients through our law school clinics, and I realized that what I really wanted to do was to not be writing about it, but to really be able to use the law as a tool to advance justice and impact real people's lives," Eidmann said Thursday.

Public Counsel, the largest pro bono public interest law firm in the U.S., announced Wednesday that Eidmann would take over as president and chief executive, taking the reins from Kristen Jackson, who served as interim president and CEO.

Jackson stepped into that role after the previous president and CEO, Mónica Ramírez Almadani, was named to the Central District of California bench in November. Almadani joined Public Counsel in 2021. 

Almadani is the third Public Counsel leader to serve on that bench; Hernán Vera, who served as president and CEO of Public Counsel from 2008 to 2014, was also confirmed to the Central District this year. Margaret Morrow spent 18 years on that court and stepped down to lead Public Counsel from 2016 to 2021.

Eidmann most recently was vice president and chief of litigation and legal problems, where she oversaw 120 attorneys, social workers, organizers and administrative staff and provided direct legal services to clients.

Her practice focuses on a range of civil rights issues, litigating cases involving education equality, children's rights, gender discrimination and low-wage workers' rights, the firm said. She's been with the organization for more nearly 12 years.

Eidmann told Law360 Pulse that she has long believed in Public Counsel's original mission to give direct service to individual, low-income clients.

Eidmann said she joined the organization as an impact litigator, working on civil rights matters to help advance racial and economic justice. She's watched Public Counsel grow in the last 15 years from offering individual client services to also tackle larger, systemic issues through impact litigation.

"Really, what's kept me at Public Counsel all these years is that we do do this unique blend of the individual client representation, along with the systemic advocacy; not just litigation, but also policy advocacy," Eidmann said.

In the past few years, Public Counsel has worked on fusing those two goals, Eidmann said, integrating its individual advocacy goals with work for systemic changes to the legal system.

"That's really my vision going forward," Eidmann said. "I think that we have an opportunity to really be transformative around advancing racial and economic justice, and the way that we can do that is by changing individual lives through direct services, but also addressing the roots of the issue that our clients are facing through our system change litigation and advocacy."

Eidmann received the California Lawyer of the Year award in 2019 for her victory in People v. Duenas, a landmark California Court of Appeals opinion, which found that courts cannot impose mandatory court fees on indigent criminal defendants, the firm said.

Eidmann said that case was a great example of Public Counsel's ability to meld individual advocacy with a focus on systemic change.

"Obviously, in this country, we have an entitlement to free legal representation, so the most vulnerable individuals involved in the criminal justice system would get their attorneys' fees waived, but then they would exit the court with a large bill of court fines and fees that they were unable to pay," Eidmann said. "That would cause them to continue the cycle of poverty and involvement in the criminal justice system, because they would have unpaid court debts and that would potentially cause them to incur more misdemeanors in the future."

Duenas' original misdemeanor was truancy, after she missed a day of school, Eidmann said. Unable to pay court fees and fines from her initial charge, Duenas incurred more fines and court debt and was caught in that cycle of poverty. 

Public Counsel represented Duenas before the California Court of Appeals, which ruled that it was a violation of defendants' due process rights to impose fines and fees on indigent clients.

"If somebody has the means to pay the fee, they can just go pay it and move on their way, but somebody who doesn't have those means is doubly penalized and carries this debt with them and all the consequences of that debt throughout their life," Eidmann said.

She added, "What I've heard from so many public defenders since is that this ruling comes up over and over and over again, and is something that public defenders in their individual practice now rely on as a critical due process protection for their clients, and the issue as a whole is now being considered currently by the California Supreme Court."

Eidmann earned her degree from Yale Law School and clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith on the D.C. Circuit. She spent about three years at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP before joining Public Counsel in 2013, according to her LinkedIn profile. She's held several positions there including director of litigation. 

Eidmann has also taught at the University of California, Irvine School of Law since 2017 and was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as a member of the city's Board of Library Commissioners and the Commission for Community and Family Services, the firm said. In that role, Eidmann advises policy leaders on poverty, youth and family-related needs.

"Having worked alongside her for more than a decade, I know firsthand her sharp mind and her deep humanity," Jackson said in a statement. "We heartily embrace Kathryn as our new leader, and undoubtedly we and our clients will thrive under her watch."

--Additional reporting by Courtney Buble. Editing by Haylee Pearl.