Kathleen Peratis

Kathleen Peratis is a partner at Outten & Golden LLP. She has practiced employment law for more than 25 years. At Outten & Golden, she chairs the Public Interest Committee and Sexual Harassment Practice Group. 

She is a member of the Executives and Professionals Practice Group.

Peratis served as director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project from 1975 to 1979. She worked closely with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who founded the project.

Peratis brought lawsuits successfully challenging as unconstitutional laws that discriminated against women on account of gender, including on account of pregnancy.

In private practice for the last three decades, Peratis has continued to represent women and men who are entering or leaving executive or professional employment or are survivors of workplace discrimination and abuse. Her clients include people who are rising on the corporate and professional ladders as well as those who have lost promotions or jobs because of their race, religion, color, or LGBT status. She has recovered millions of dollars for these survivors, usually in settlement and sometimes at trial. Under Peratis’ leadership, the Public Interest Committee at Outten & Golden has taken on representation of people with workplace claims too small to be economically viable for most lawyers but too important to ignore.

Peratis has served on the Board of Directors for Human Rights Watch (HRW), as well as chair for the HRW Women’s Rights Division’s Advisory Committee. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the New Israel Fund.