Katherine (Kate) Howard graduated first in her class at the University of Georgia School of Law. Ms. Howard was a recipient of the Philip H. Alston, Jr. Distinguished Law Fellowship. She was an editor for the Georgia Law Review, a research assistant, and a teaching assistant. She interned at SCOTUSblog, a Peabody Award winning website devoted to coverage of the United States Supreme Court.

After law school, Ms. Howard clerked for the Honorable Jill A. Pryor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Following her clerkship, she was in private practice in New York State, where she focused on civil and criminal litigation and argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Ms. Howard joined the Federal Defender Office in 2020, as an appellate attorney. Since then, she has litigated cases in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, and she has argued several cases before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.