Prior to her appointment to the bench, Justice Katz served as chief of legal services for the Office of the Chief Public Defender from 1983 to 1989. She served as an assistant public defender from 1978 to 1983. Before that, Justice Katz was an associate at Winnick Vine and Welch in Shelton.

Justice Katz has served on numerous committees and commissions, including the Ad Hoc Criminal Justice Committee, the American Law Institute Sentencing Advisory Committee, the Commission to Revise Connecticut Appellate rules, Inns of Courts, Connecticut’s Evidence Code Drafting Committee (which she chairs), the Law Revision Commission, the Public Defender Commission, the Connecticut Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules (which she chaired) and the Client Security Fund (which she chairs).

She is co-author of the book, Connecticut Criminal Caselaw Handbook: A Practitioner’s Guide, published in 1989 by the Connecticut Law Tribune. As an Associate Justice, she has authored approximately 350 majority opinions and 25 concurring and dissenting opinions.

Justice Katz is an instructor of ethics at Yale University School of Law in New Haven. She also is an instructor of criminal law and ethics at the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden. She also served from 1981 to 1984 as an instructor in legal research and writing, Moot Court, and appellate advocacy at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Justice Katz has received many awards and honors, including The Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund’s Maria Miller Stewart Award in 1993, the National Organization for Women’s Harriet Tubman Award in 1993, the University of Connecticut School of Law’s Distinguished Graduate Award in 2000, the National Council of Jewish Women’s Women of Distinction Award in 2001, the Connecticut Bar Association’s Henry J. Naruk Judiciary Award in 2004 as well as an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from Quinnipiac University School of Law.