Katherine Ball

Since 2008 Katie Ball has served as the Externship Director for the University of Idaho College of Law. She is a clinical professor of law at the College’s Boise campus and has taught Advanced Criminal Law Writing, Criminal Procedure, and Introduction to the Idaho Legislature. She often teaches Federal Courts using experiences from her federal court clerkships, legal practice, and service as a federal court lawyer representative to inform class discussions. She also helps plan and manage institutes on the rule of law for teachers and journalists.

Katie earned her law degree from the University of Idaho in May 2002. During law school she worked as an intern for the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, Criminal Appellate Division, and at Holland & Hart LLP. She spent her last semester of law school externing for the Honorable B. Lynn Winmill, the former Chief United States District Judge in Idaho. While in law school Katie argued a case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and another to the Idaho Court of Appeals.

After law school, Katie clerked for a year for the Honorable Stephen S. Trott with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. During the following year, she worked as a staff attorney in the habeas/capital case unit at the United States District Court for the District of Idaho and worked part-time for the Honorable Thomas G. Nelson with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Katie spent a year with the law firm of Holland & Hart LLP before returning to the Idaho federal court in2005 to work as a career clerk for the Honorable Larry M. Boyle. She worked for ten years as a career law clerk for Judge Boyle and the Honorable Ronald E. Bush, both former Chief United States Magistrate Judges for the District of Idaho. She worked part-time as an adjunct professor in the externship program at the College of Law during the last few years of her clerkship. In 2016, she retired from federal service to teach full time at the College of Law.

When not working, Katie spends her time in the mountains, with her four children and her husband, Jim, a partner in the law firm Breen, Ball, & Marelius.

• Elizabeth Schierman & Katie Ball, Civil Procedure in Idaho: An Examination of Significant Differences Between the Rules of Procedure of the Idaho State and Federal Courts, 46 IDAHO L. REV. 13 (2009).
• Katie Ball, A Practical Opportunity, THE ADVOCATE (Idaho Feb. 2009).
• Katie Ball, It’s Your Turn, THE ADVOCATE (Idaho Feb. 2008).
• Katie Ball, Judicial Profile: Hon. Larry M. Boyle, U.S. Magistrate Judge, District of Idaho, 55 FED. LAW. 36 (Jan. 2008).