Heather Gatnarek - Louisville, KY

Overview

Awards and Honors

Education

• Legal Education

  • Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, District of Columbia, 2012
    J.D.

• Non Legal Education

  • Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, 2005
    B.A.
    Major: Sociology

Pro Bono Activities

• Jefferson County Women Lawyers Association, Board Member (2024-present)

Representative Cases

• Successfully prosecuted First Amendment free exercise and retaliation claim against Kentucky Department of Corrections for its violation of client’s religious liberty by forcibly cutting his dreadlocks, negotiating settlement of case including a resultant change to the policy thereby preventing repeats of this practice. Thurman v. Crews et al., Case No. 5:22-CV-00109 (E.D. Ky.).
• Defeated city government’s motion to dismiss putative class litigation on basis of Monell liability, allowing litigation to proceed. Scott et al. v. Louisville Metro Police Department et al., 503 F.Supp.3d 532, 2020 WL 6946573 (W.D. Ky. Nov. 25, 2020).
• Won summary judgment and attorneys’ fees award in First Amendment challenge to Kentucky Department of Transportation’s unconstitutional and inconsistent denial of personalized license plates, resulting in amended statute and practice. Hart v. Thomas, 422 F.Supp.3d 1227, 2019 WL 5967947 (E.D. Ky. Nov. 13, 2019).
• Successfully defended Open Records requester in lawsuit filed by large public university, leading to disclosure of Open Records and award of attorneys’ fees. University of Louisville v. Peter Hasselbacher, No. 16-CI-4800 (Jefferson Co. Cir. Ct. May 22, 2018).
• Aggressively investigated and litigated actual innocence claim pre-trial in a capital case, resulting first in the prosecution’s declining to pursue the death penalty as a possible punishment, and then in the dismissal of all charges and client’s release from jail after five years of wrongful confinement. Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Jonathan Taylor, No. 12-CR-00070-001 (Knox Co. Cir. Ct. Jun. 30, 2016).
• Under then-existing federal law, obtained trial level preliminary and permanent injunctions against state laws that would have banned or prohibited certain critical medical procedures. EMW Women’s Surgical Center, P.S.C. et al. v. Glisson et al., Case No. 3:17-CV-00189 (W.D. Ky.)
• EMW Women’s Surgical Center, P.S.C. et al. v. Meier et al., Case No. 3:18-CV-00224 (W.D. Ky.)
• EMW Women’s Surgical Center, P.S.C., et al. v. Meier et al., Case No. 3:19-CV-00178 (W.D. Ky.)
• Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, Inc. et al. v. Cameron et al., Case No. 3:22-CV-00198 (W.D. Ky.)

Bar Admissions

• Kentucky
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Kentucky
• U.S. District Court Western District of Kentucky

Other Affiliations

• Kentucky Bar Association
• Louisville Bar Association
• Jefferson County Women Lawyers Association