Katie Ball

Lawyer, Law Faculty and Mother:
Katie Ball Can Do It All

If it seems just too hard to accomplish – ask Katie Ball if it can be done. As a mother of two, Ball went to law school in Moscow and spent her weekends at home in Boise with her children.

“The professors were very helpful,” says Ball. "I would drive to Boise on Thursday after class and back to Moscow on Monday morning. I had to leave at two in the morning just to make it to my 8:30 a.m. class. My kids stayed during the week with their dad. I would get them on Thursday and then volunteer in their classes on Friday. I enjoyed law school and helping out at the elementary school, but it was a long few years.”

Today she is a staff attorney for the federal court and the externship director for the University of Idaho College of Law. “Externships are a way for students to bridge the gap between classroom learning and the practice of law,” explains Ball.

Based in Boise, Ball finds public sector opportunities for students in the Boise third year program. “They want to mentor law students,” says Ball of the agencies and supervisors involved. It gives the students experience they need before graduating, while giving back to state, federal, and non-profit agencies. “We often have positions that go unfilled; we have such a great response from the community.”
Ball, like many of her colleagues who work for the law school in Boise, says the law learning environment in the capital city is rather unique. “We get to know the students quite well, often meeting their spouses and children.” With 30 students in the third year program, Ball says there is a lot of one on one time, allowing students multiple opportunities to network and learn from not only their professors, but the community as well.

Ball’s dedication to the law can be felt not only through her work, but at home as well. Her husband, a partner at Manweiler, Breen, Ball and Hancock, is a well-known defense attorney and University of Idaho alumni. While they have their careers in common, discussing cases is off limits. “There is a lot that we can’t tell each other. I can’t even know the names of his clients most of the time and, because I work for the federal courts, I am not allowed to share much from my work projects with him. So, there is a lot that we can’t tell each other, but sharing a profession helps us both understand the stress we each have stemming from our work as lawyers.”

Ball is now a mother of four with children between the ages of 21 and six. Her schedule is always busy, but she credits her ability to get things done to the help of her husband, explaining: “Jim makes it easy for me by being a great dad.” Ball says her time in law school was a challenge balancing both family and her future, but she says she would go back. “Law school was great. I loved the learning part of it. It was challenging, but having kids helped me keep it in perspective,” explains Ball to perspective students. “Law school does not define you as a person. It doesn’t change who you are, it is simply something you do. If you keep it in the right perspective, you can go to law school without being overwhelmed!”