Katherine A. Mazzaferri, Esq.

Katherine A. Mazzaferri, A Leader in Service to the Client Community
and the Legal Profession

By Cynthia D Hill

Katherine A. Mazzaferri grew up in a family that planted the seeds for her life-long commitment to access to justice, public service, and championship of diversity.  She described her parents and her extended family members as “creative, caring and courageous,” as well as “principled and caring with their families and with others.” Despite the tragic loss of her father in an airplane crash when Mazzaferri was only 12 years old and the profound impact of that loss on her family, her mother and other family members continued to provide strong role models for her development and growth.

Although she majored in Latin-American Literature at New York University, Mazzaferri chose to go to law school because “I really wanted to make a difference in the community.” And she did just that, while attending the George Washington University Law School and continuing throughout her entire legal career. At GW Law School, she worked with other women to develop a Women and the Law course.  She challenged gender biases and was a founding member and the second president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund.

At the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, initially as a second-year student intern and later as a trial attorney, Mazzaferri worked to fight gender and racial discrimination, sometimes even under harrowing circumstances. From witnesses and complainants for whom she advocated, she learned the importance of understanding what potential remedies would in fact achieve affirmative results for the intended beneficiaries.

Mazzaferri then turned to directing a small litigation department at the League of Women Voters Education Fund. While at the LWVEF, she and co-counsel successfully sought the adoption by the U.S. Department of Labor of regulations to enforce a law that required affirmative action in the employment of women in the construction industry.

From engaging in litigation and other strategies to obtain enforcement of existing laws at the EEOC and the LWVEF, Mazzaferri pivoted to efforts at rulemaking to establish new legal standards at the Federal Trade Commission. From that experience, she learned much about the challenges of trying to address difficult policy issues.

The next phase of Mazzaferri’s legal career was working for 35 years at the District of Columbia Bar.  Starting as the Executive Director of a still fledgling organization and continuing as its Chief Executive Officer, she led the Bar’s evolution into one of the nation’s most comprehensive providers of an array of programs and services to the legal profession and the client community. A strong commitment to diversity was a hallmark of Mazzaferri’s tenure at the D.C. Bar, as demonstrated in her recruitment of volunteer Bar leaders and her hiring and oversight of staff.

Perhaps her greatest passion was the development and evolution of the Bar’s award-winning Pro Bono Center as a model for program development and the effective delivery of legal services. In recognition of her longstanding dedication and support, upon her retirement, D.C. Bar leaders established the Katherine A. Mazzaferri Emerging Legal Needs Fund for the Pro Bono Center.