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Bio

Katherine B. Forrest

Board of Governors

Partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

A partner in the Litigation Department, co-chair of the Digital Technology Group and a member of the Antitrust Practice Group, Katherine previously served as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York and as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. A veteran trial attorney, Katherine regularly handles sensitive investigations, complex commercial and antitrust litigation, intellectual property matters, high technology advisory and litigation matters (in the areas of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and blockchain).

EXPERIENCE

Katherine is widely considered among the nation’s foremost advisors on legal issues relating to technology, including artificial intelligence, big data, the digital environment, and high-speed trading and content distribution. A veteran trial attorney with more than 30 years of experience, she has led complex, high-stakes litigation spanning antitrust, copyright, patent, and media law, and regulatory and litigation matters at the intersection of technology and the law, including in relation to artificial intelligence, Web3 and digital assets. She has led numerous sensitive, high-profile investigations involving the DOJ, FTC and other U.S. and foreign regulators.

WRITING/SPEAKING

Katherine is a frequent speaker and published author in the areas of antitrust, intellectual property and investigations, and regularly writes and speaks on topics concerning the use of artificial intelligence in the practice of law and algorithmic bias. Katherine has authored two books entitled When Machines Can be Judge, Jury and Executioner: Justice in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (on algorithmic bias) and Is Justice Real When “Reality” is Not: The Construction of Ethical Systems in Virtual Worlds. She has appeared on the PBS show, NOVA, on algorithmic bias and artificial intelligence; and she authored the “Artificial Intelligence” treatise chapters for Business & Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts (Fifth Edition) and Business & Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (Fifth Edition), respectively, and a chapter on emerging issues in copyright law and artificial intelligence in The Law of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Machines. She is also a regular technology columnist for the New York Law Journal, earning a distinguished legal writing award in 2020 from The Burton Awards for her article “The Holographic Judge.”

Katherine delivered numerous talks in 2021 and 2022 at events hosted by the American Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, the National Judicial College, the New York State Judicial Institute, The Future Society and UNESCO, among others, including on topics related to artificial intelligence, the metaverse, antitrust and international arbitration. She was a panelist on “The Path Towards an Enforceable EU AI Act,” at The Athens Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence and the Rule of Law and “Choosing Wisely: The Challenge of Interim Measures in Interational Arbitration,” at New York Arbitration Week. She has spoken numerous times on behalf of the National Judicial College, given keynote speeches on these issues before all of the New York State judges and trained judges on these issues internationally, including “The Transforming Role of Judicial Operators in Upholding the Rule of Law in the Age of AI,” at UNESCO and SMART Africa’s Virtual Inter-regional Training Program. She has been an adjunct professor of law at NYU School of Law for eight years where she co-teaches a course on Quantitative Methods and the Law.

INDUSTRY AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Katherine is a member of the ABA Taskforce on Law and Artificial Intelligence and was recently named an individual Innovation Award winner in the New York Law Journal’s 2023 Legal Awards for her work in AI. She has also been recognized as a leading lawyer by numerous industry publications, including The American Lawyer, Benchmark Litigation, Chambers USA, Global Competition Review, IP Law & Business, Lawdragon and The Legal 500 US. She has received Benchmark Litigation’s Hall of Fame Award and has been named to the publication’s “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America” list and “Top 250 Women in Litigation” list. She was named the 2022 New York City “Lawyer of the Year” by The Best Lawyers in America for Antitrust Law and in 2019, she was included in Crain’s New York Business’s list of “Notable Women in Law.” The American Lawyer recognized Katherine as one of 10 district court judges to watch and Law360 named her one of the 10 most influential recently appointed judges.