After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., Kate, an ocean-minded South Florida native, decided to change oceans and begin her law career in Orange County. Currently, Kate is a California bar-certified attorney with an eponymous law practice: The Law Offices of K. Kelso. Kate has chosen to eschew the corporate route in favor of the personal. She provides comprehensive legal services and specializes in estate plans that are individualized and compassionate. The law firm places a priority on establishing and building strong relationships with clients, making sure to keep in touch so that estate plans and other documents stay current with changing laws. Importantly, Kate is also knowledgeable about the rapidly changing legal landscape surrounding ownership and bequeathing of digital assets and is completely comfortable with digital communication with clients.
Kate has traveled extensively throughout more than sixty countries around the globe, including such diverse places as Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, and Nepal. Her legal work has also been international (Serbia, Italy, and Tanzania). For over a year, Kate worked on a case in Tanzania representing two widows (and their daughters) who were forced by their brothers-in-law to leave their homes after the death of their husbands. In Tanzania, tribal laws prohibit women from inheriting any land, even the estates of their late husbands. The daughters were also denied the right to inherit based solely on their sex. Kate petitioned the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on behalf of the two widows and their daughters. CEDAW ruled that, because Tanzania had signed an international treaty guaranteeing equal rights, it must grant reparations to the widows and their daughters and change its laws to provide gender equality. This effectively changed the lives of millions of tribal women for generations to come.
In 2010, Kate was the first American Legal Associate invited to work in Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, Belgrade, Serbia, where she helped shape Serbian post-conflict judicial reform. Kate’s recommendations to the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office led directly to the successful extradition of Radko Mladić, a general during the Yugoslavian War, who orchestrated the murder of tens of thousands of Balkan Muslims. Mladić was later found guilty of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide and was sentenced to life in prison.
These legal experiences, combined with her extensive travel, shaped the type of human, compassionate, law office that is K. Kelso Law. Now in California, Kate combines her ability to listen non-judgmentally to every client consultation. She is realizing her longtime commitment to thinking globally and acting locally. She aims to empower each and every client by helping them through wills, trusts, and estate planning as they contemplate and arrange their future.
