As attorneys and parents with a houseful of children, Katie and Bill Short (both ’80) know what it means to be busy and productive. Bill serves as general counsel for an insurance company, and Katie, in addition to teaching her growing family, does extensive, mostly pro bono, legal work for the pro-life cause.
Bill remarks, “It may sound trite, but it’s true that the Thomas Aquinas College experience results in having a sense of where you are going. One is constantly reminded, day in, day out, that no matter what, you have a better grasp of the nature of the task at hand, whether relating to family life, personal or professional life, or your salvation.”
Bill admits that his law practice is more mundane that his wife’s. He proudly recalls that it was Katie who, after graduation from Thomas Aquinas College in 1980, had the choice of many prestigious law schools, including Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley. Katie chose Boalt Hall at Berkeley, later passing the California Bar. After their marriage Katie and Bill set up house at Notre Dame, where Bill was earning his law degree. Katie began her pro-life legal work with Americans United for Life in Chicago. She has used her legal expertise to help many pro-life causes. Her excellent legal briefs have been submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court numerous times, earning both praise and favorable rulings.
Katie helped found the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a California group that provides legal aid to those who need legal help in their efforts to help the unborn. She serves as director and attorney for the group, which has a mailing list of 10,000 names for its newsletter and other publications.