Catherine D. Bertram

Catherine D. “Katie” Bertram started the Bertram & Murphy, building on decades of experience as both a medical malpractice attorney and director of risk management at Georgetown University Hospital.

In those environments, she learned how doctors and hospitals work, as well as how their attorneys assess claims against them. She draws on this knowledge to advocate for patients and their families.

“People want someone who’s competent, caring, and careful. They’ve just gone through the worst thing in their lives and been betrayed by doctors or a hospital — people that we’re supposed to trust,” she said. “I can set forth what happened and why it was negligent.”

Bertram graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a bachelor of social work. While accompanying a social worker to court one day, she found her true passion—the law. “The minute I walked into court, I knew that’s what I should be doing,” she said.

She obtained her law degree from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C., in 1989, becoming the first lawyer in her family. The faculty nominated her as Woman Law Student of the Year.

Bertram focuses on personal injury and medical malpractice in part because her mother is a nurse. “It allows me to combine the law and medicine,” she said. “I enjoy talking to juries and teaching them about complicated medical cases in an easier way.”

Bertram has achieved several distinctions throughout her career. She is one of 20 people serving on the D.C. Bar’s Board of Governors and also is a board member of the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, which finds lawyers to meet the legal needs of D.C.’s low-income residents, nonprofits, and small businesses.

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