Kate Heavner
Kate has worked in legal offices over the last 15 years, spanning from Florida to her home here in Asheville, North Carolina. She graduated with honors from The University of Florida with a B.A. in English in 2008 and found her calling in the legal field at The Ticktin Law Group, P.A. – a busy mortgage foreclosure defense firm during the peak of the 2010 housing crisis in Florida.
In 2012, Kate moved away from the beaches of Florida to pursue her dream of living in the mountains in Asheville, North Carolina. There, she took on a role in Human Resources and Compliance for Epsilon, Inc., an IT company specializing in cybersecurity services for government and compliance-based organizations. After the business quickly grew from 50 to over 200 employees, Kate shifted out of Human Resources and was promoted to Epsilon’s Contracts Administrator/Assistant Facility Security Officer in 2018. Her primary duties included maintaining business and government contracts, processing DoD Secret and Top Secret security clearances for all federal employees, and performing ISO 27001 compliance audits.
Kate left her life of compliance and DoD contracts in 2021 to revisit her first love: law. She secured a role as Paralegal/Office Manager for Lindsay Law, PLLC, a small criminal defense firm in the heart of downtown Asheville. After a year of the fast-paced life in a criminal defense firm, she was offered a Legal Assistant position at Hall Booth Smith, P.C., a defense firm with regional offices in 12 states and a workforce of nearly 400 attorneys nationwide. Kate enjoyed the calculated process of civil defense. The attorneys she worked with mainly represented large insurance companies in personal injury and medical malpractice suits. She worked with a fantastic team, but found her true calling when she was offered a job with Davis, Johnston, & Ringger, PC as a Paralegal/Office Administrator in February 2024. As a strong advocate for the environment, having a passion for helping those affected by pollution, and generally enjoying the beauty and majesty of the mountains surrounding her hometown, Kate found a comfortable niche in environmental law and fit right into her position here at Davis, Johnston, & Ringger.
In her free time, Kate enjoys hiking, camping, traveling, gardening, reading, and watching terrible, cheesy, horror movies. She has called Asheville home for over a decade and could not imagine living anywhere else.