About Katherine
Katherine McShane earned her J.D. from California Western School of Law in 2008 after completing a B.S. at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004. While at California Western she contributed to the Law Review and International Law Journal, serving as an associate writer and an associate editor in 2007. Those years on law review gave her early exposure to legal research and writing that would shape her approach to litigation.
She began gaining courtroom experience as a summer law clerk in 2006 at Mulliken, Weiner, Karsh, Berg, & Jolivet in Colorado Springs. After law school she worked as a deputy district lawyer in Jefferson County, Colorado, in 2008. That role put her on the other side of contested hearings and helped her learn how prosecutors build a case. In 2011 she moved into private practice in Denver, taking associate litigation positions at both Tiftickjian Law Office and Jansen & Associates, Lawyers at Law.
By 2013 McShane was practicing in Pennsylvania as a litigation associate at The McShane Firm, LLC in Harrisburg. Her career crosses public and private work, and she has handled cases in different jurisdictions. That mix of experience informs how she prepares a file for trial and how she questions expert testimony when evidence turns on technical analysis.
Scientific and forensic training is a substantial part of her background. She has completed multiple American Chemical Society programs in forensic chromatography and forensic drug analysis, as well as a series of Forensic Principles of DUID courses. She earned an ACS-CHAL Lawyer-Scientist designation and completed both practitioner and instructor training in Standardized Field Sobriety Tests through PADDDA. Those credentials support work that involves chemical testing, laboratory reports, and sobriety testing procedures.
McShane holds memberships in a range of professional groups, including the Dauphin County Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She has been involved in DUI defense organizations such as the DUI Defense Lawyer’s Association and the Pennsylvania Association for Drunk Driving Defense Lawyers. She was a member of the National College of DUI Defense from 2012 to 2018 and also participates in the American Chemical Society’s Chemistry in the Law Division.
Her background combines courtroom practice, prosecutorial experience, and technical training in forensic science. She approaches cases with attention to the scientific details that often decide disputed evidence. McShane practices criminal defense and DUI defense, handling matters that raise forensic evidence issues.
