Mary Catherine Roper joined the firm in October 2021, bringing experience in civil rights and in complex litigation in state and federal courts. Mary Catherine comes to the firm from her position as Deputy Legal Director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, where she managed an active docket of state and federal court cases addressing a broad range of civil liberties issues. She is known for creative strategies that achieve results, whether that is relief for individual clients, or broader law reform. She has led successful collaborations with firms large and small, with public interest coalitions, and with government agencies.

Before joining the ACLU, Mary Catherine was a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP), where she had a diverse complex litigation practice with extensive experience in class actions, consumer protection, corporate governance, defamation, and commercial litigation. There, Roper represented individual and corporate clients from a wide range of industries, appearing in state and federal courts across the country, as well as mass tort and federal court multidistrict proceedings.

Prior to joining Drinker Biddle & Reath, Mary Catherine clerked for the Honorable Anita B. Brody of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and served a year with the Disabilities Law Project as the first recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation Public Interest Fellowship.

Mary Catherine is committed to fostering the next generation of social justice warriors. She serves as adjunct faculty in the Trial Advocacy program of Temple Law School, teaching trial skills to law students and lawyers in the LLM in Trial Advocacy Program. She has mentored and advised scores of law students and young lawyers seeking to pursue public interest careers.

Mary Catherine graduated, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1993. She received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1987. Mary Catherine grew up in Southern California, but now considers herself a Philadelphian and a Phillies fan.