Our Team
BIO
Kathryn Wakefield is the founding attorney of Wakefield Law Group, PC and long-time resident of Shadyside where our practice is located. She has more than 25 years of experience practicing law in Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas.
Education
Kathryn earned her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Communication at Pitt, after which she worked as a local newspaper reporter, covering many housing issues in Pittsburgh’s east end. She continued on to University of Pittsburgh School of Law/Katz Graduate School of Business where she earned a dual degree in December 1999. Kathryn served on the University of Pittsburgh Law Review and published a law review article, a great achievement for a law student, entitled: Just-in-time Legislation: Do Corporation-Specific Statutes Violate State Constitutional Prohibitions on Special Legislation? University of Pittsburgh Law Review Spring, 200061 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 843. The article examined the legislative activity around the BNY Mellon merger, which was in the works in the late 1990s but did not come to fruition until Jul 2, 2007.
Kathryn has been a landlord in Shadyside for 24 years, which is an education in and of itself.
Employment
Upon admission to the Pennsylvania Bar in 2000, Kathryn started her career at Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling, a large firm that later merged with Buchanan Ingersoll, forming Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney. While at Klett Rooney, Kathryn worked in the firm’s bankruptcy and real estate departments. Upon leaving Klett Rooney, Kathryn worked in public service as an assistant county solicitor with the Allegheny County Law Department. She returned to private practice and has worked as a real estate attorney – either for others or for herself, ever since. For the past 15 years, Kathryn has grown her practice to encompass entity formation, real estate purchase, private equity, finance and closings, Act 135 Conservatorship cases, commercial and residential landlord/tenant, small business counseling/purchase and sale, fraudulent concealment/seller disclosure fraud, general contract counseling and litigation, small claims, arbitration, trial work, Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, and contractor collection litigation. Kathryn also has referral partners in personal injury, probate, estate planning/wealth management and other areas.
Community Service / Affordable Housing
Kathryn serves on the Board and Real Estate Committee of Oakland Planning and Development Corporation. She is a Co-Chair of the Board of the Wilkinsburg Land Bank. She and other Shadysiders are in the process of forming a Registered Community Organization to assist with the betterment of the neighborhood with a view to post-Covid recovery of the somewhat disinvested business districts in Shadyside.
