She has been involved in some of the biggest cases of the last three decades and called “the woman Wall Street fears most” by Forbes magazine, but for Kathy Patrick, a pro bono case she worked on as a young lawyer stands out as a highlight of her impressive career.
Patrick, a partner at the Houston-based litigation boutique Gibbs & Bruns LLP, represented Calvin Burdine in Harris County, Texas, beginning in 1986, not long after she finished law school and completed a one-year law clerkship with Judge John R. Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
WHAT UTEP MEANT TO MY SUCCESS
AND HOW FAR I’VE COME BECAUSE
OF HOW UTEP EQUIPPED ME.”
Kathy Patrick
Burdine had been sentenced to death for murder. His case was made famous because his lawyer slept through a significant portion of his 1984 trial. Through the efforts of Patrick and others, he was able to plead guilty in 2003 in exchange for three life sentences.
“I remember thinking how horrifying it must be to meet a 26-year-old woman and realize she was the only thing standing between you and dying,” Patrick said, recalling her first encounter with Burdine at the Harris County Jail. “I’m very proud that I stood up for Calvin and that others stood up with me over time, and he was not executed.”
Patrick has a deep respect for life. She knows from firsthand experience how quickly it can be taken away. When she was 14, her house in Canutillo caught fire in the middle of the night. Her mother and father got Patrick and her sister out of the house, but her father went back in to try and fight the fire. He was overcome by a wall of heat and smoke and died.
That experience helped shape her next steps.
Born in Rapid City, S.D., Patrick moved to the El Paso area in 1966 when her military father was transferred to what was then Biggs Air Force Base. She applied to several universities as she finished her senior year at Canutillo High School, but chose UTEP because she wasn’t ready to leave home only four years after her father’s death. The fact that UTEP offered her a full scholarship also helped make a college education possible for her.
Enrolling at UTEP was like opening her eyes to the world around her.
“My memory is of windows and doors opening,” Patrick said. “I remember every day thinking that there was so much more to the world than I had ever known. I went to a small rural high school without a lot of resources, and when I got to UTEP, the amount of energy and insight and challenge was just staggering.”
She started out as a psychology major but switched to history with a concentration in Soviet and Eastern European studies when she learned that psychology majors were required to take statistics. Her program placed a strong emphasis on critical thinking and writing, two skills essential for lawyers that Patrick “improved upon tremendously” while at UTEP, she said.
After graduating with a B.A., with highest honors, in 1982, she attended Harvard Law School and earned her J.D. in 1985. She began working for Gibbs & Bruns in 1986 after her law clerkship.
Patrick works on high-dollar, high-stakes commercial litigation, including a number of currently-pending mortgage-backed securities cases that will take several years to resolve. So far, she and her firm have negotiated settlements with Residential Capital, or ResCap, a large mortgage originator that went bankrupt, and one with Bank of America for $8.5 billion – the second biggest legal settlement in American history. Patrick also represented Enron’s outside directors after the company collapsed, and secured a $1.7 billion settlement for chemical company Huntsman Corp. in a dispute with two large banks.
When she’s not working, Patrick sings in the praise band at Faith Lutheran Church in Houston, teaches an adult Bible study class, and spends time with her husband, Arthur Murphy, and their two teenage sons.
Paul Yetter, a 1980 UTEP graduate and 2008 Distinguished Alumnus, said Patrick started making her mark even as a college student. The two were involved in student government in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Now, they both practice law in Houston.
“Kathy was passionate about bringing positive changes to the campus,” Yetter recalled. “As just a freshman, she had a big role in what turned out to be a great year. At the same time, she was making straight A’s and winning a slew of beauty pageant titles. She was a dynamo.”
Her success is a result of her determination and high standards, Yetter added.
“She excels because she is better prepared and fearless,” he said. “She is not afraid to tackle huge issues, knowing that with hard work she can find the right approach … Her clients know they have a relentless advocate on their side.”
Despite her tough demeanor, Patrick has a soft spot for her alma mater. When she learned that she had been selected as a UTEP Distinguished Alumna, she was overcome with emotion.
“It was so profound to have people who knew me when I was just a teenager come and say, many years later, ‘You’ve accomplished something we’re proud of,’” she said. “It brought home to me both what UTEP meant to my success and how far I’ve come because of how UTEP equipped me.”