Catherine Pastrikos Kelly

Catherine helps businesses, executives, owners and investors navigate their most significant legal issues. Clients turn to Catherine when the stakes are high, the path forward is unclear and the outcome matters.

Known for her strategic thinking, relentless advocacy and practical approach, Catherine views litigation as a tool to achieve client goals — not an end in itself. She partners closely with her clients to develop winning strategies, anticipate obstacles and position legal issues for success, whether through early resolution, dispositive motion practice or trial.

Throughout her career, Catherine has worked on high-profile disputes and with prominent clients across the U.S. and internationally, including multiple matters that received front-page coverage in national newspapers. She is disciplined, relentless and committed to meticulous preparation.

Catherine represents businesses, owners, executives and employees in complex contract disputes, shareholder and partnership disputes (business divorces), fraud claims, tortious interference claims and business tort litigation. She also regularly litigates and advises clients regarding restrictive covenant matters, including non-compete, non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements, as well as defamation, libel and slander claims. Catherine has significant trial experience in state and federal courts across the country.

In addition to her litigation practice, Catherine negotiates and structures contracts for businesses and executives, including representing entertainment industry clients in connection with commercial agreements. She leverages her extensive litigation experience to identify potential pitfalls, eliminate ambiguities and help clients avoid disputes before they arise. She also advises clients on employment matters, including negotiating and enforcing severance agreements and navigating confidentiality, noncompete and non-solicitation issues.

Clients rely on Catherine not only as their advocate, but as a trusted advisor who brings clarity to complex situations, sound judgment under pressure and an unwavering focus on results. She understands that litigation can distract clients from their work and personal lives, and her goal is to shoulder that burden so clients can remain focused on what matters most to them.

While Catherine is always prepared to take a dispute to trial, she recognizes that the best result is not always found in the courtroom. Her focus is on achieving her clients’ objectives as efficiently and effectively as possible. When litigation becomes unavoidable, however, she is relentless in pursuing the outcome her clients need.

Catherine has served as lead counsel in hundreds of matters nationwide and has developed a reputation for creative problem-solving, strategic advocacy and exceptional client service.

• Contract Disputes/Fraud Claims – Commercial relationships are built on contracts, and many business disputes ultimately arise from broken agreements or misrepresentations. Catherine has represented clients in a wide range of contract and fraud matters, including securing full judgments and attorneys’ fees for multiple global clients in fraud and breach of contract actions against a veterinary equipment manufacturer. She also represented a global device manufacturer in a dispute against a global social media company involving nonpayment under a commercial agreement, achieving a favorable settlement that protected the client’s business interests.
• Shareholder Disputes – Represented owners and investors in contentious shareholder and partnership disputes, including matters involving attempts to freeze out minority owners, divert company assets, usurp business opportunities and wrest control of closely held companies. Successfully secured reversals of injunctions, prevented the appointment of receivers, and obtained receiverships when doing so advanced client objectives.
• Employment Litigation – Represented companies, executives and employees in disputes involving executive departures, negotiating severance packages and separation agreements, confidentiality, noncompete and non-solicitation agreements and wrongful termination, including protecting customer relationships, safeguarding proprietary information and litigating restrictive covenant disputes.
• Entertainment Industry Representation – Represented talent managers with drafting and negotiating agreements with talent, protecting intellectual property rights and resolving business disputes arising in the entertainment industry
• Intellectual Property Litigation – Defended companies’ trademarks in high-stakes litigation, protecting brand rights and limiting infringement-related exposure.
• Probate and Estate Litigation – Successfully represented clients in probate and estate disputes, including obtaining a favorable trial verdict in an undue influence case involving challenges to the disposition of family assets.
• High-Stakes Investigations – Represented high-net-worth individuals in a six-year tax and securities fraud investigation involving offshore asset protection structures across multiple international jurisdictions.

Affiliations

• Children’s Light Foundation, Director and General Counsel, 2018-Present
• New Jersey Women Lawyers Association
  • Endorsements Committee, Co-Director, 2022-Present
  • Best Practices Committee, Co-Director, 2018-2022
• New Jersey Board of Education, 2020-2023

Education

• Albany Law School, J.D., magna cum laude
• Rutgers University – New Brunswick, B.S., cum laude

Bar Admissions

• New York
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania

Court Admissions

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. Supreme Court