MISSISSIPPI'S 50 Leading Business Women 2006: Katherine S. Kerby, Vice President, Gholson, Hicks& Nichols, P.A.

COLUMBUS - Katherine Kerby grew up learning the bittersweet realities of living in poverty.

"My mother... was an educated woman who successfully raised four children in Mississippi in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s on her sole public schoolteacher salary," explained Kerby, the second of four children

Kerby, whose father, V.P. Ferguson, is a professional writer living in Paris, France, thrived in the school environment. She played three varsity sports while being a cheerleader, straightA student and homecoming queen.

She earned undergraduate degrees in English and public administration from the University of Mississippi in 1979 and decided to pursue a law degree because "I was tired of being poor," she admitted. "I can be persuasive and love the art of language, so the law was a natural fit. A law degree allows many versatile avenues to do good and also support your family."

Kerby graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School in 1982, joining Gholson, Hicks & Nichols as an associate attorney and The Mississippi Bar immediately following graduation. "I paid for college, all seven years, myself with grants, scholarships, loans and jobs," said Kerby, who was selected vice president of the Ole Miss Student Body and later served two years as Chief Justice of the Student Court System. Faculty and students elected her to the Ole Miss Hall of Fame.

In 1987, she married Michael Kerby Jr., a CPA who manages a private accounting firm in Columbus, and became part owner of Gholson, Hicks & Nichols. Since then, she has served as the law firm's managing partner and marketing director.

Her key clients include Cash Distributing Company Inc. (Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.'s distributor for North Mississippi), Columbus Marbleworks, Lauren Constructors and the cities of Booneville, Columbus, Eupora, New Albany and Starkville. Her practice areas include public entities, civil trial practice, civil fights, employment, constitutional torts defense, governmental liability, public officials and insurance defense.

In 2003, Kerby won at least three cases of first impression on summary judgment; her success rate on summary judgment is 85%. "Testing previously unaddressed areas of law is rewarding," said Kerby, who won the 22,000-member national Defense Research Institute's (DRI) 2002 and 2003 awards for significant contributions to the defense bar.

Kerby served as the DRI state representative in 1992 for the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association and served as the state association president in 2002. She assisted with passage by the Mississippi Supreme Court of Rule 35 of the Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure. (Mississippi was the only state for 17 years that did not allow independent medical examinations of parties in lawsuits that claimed injuries.)

"This is an invaluable new tool for defense of business and physicians," said Kerby. "I worked at increasing awareness of business issues impacted by jackpot justice, as well as writing the earliest business tort reform legislation, which I testified to and submitted to the Legislature. Some was passed exactly as I wrote it."

Kerby recently defended a Fourth Amendment tort class action that alleged illegal arrest procedures involving 9,000 claims in North Mississippi. Even though this case was settled for less than $100,000, it had the potential of setting a record verdict for the plaintiffs in the region.

"While we have six or seven approved defense attorneys in that area, I seek out Katherine's services because of her success rate," said Bruce Donaldson, tort liability claims manager for the Mississippi Tort Claims Board. "She's been indispensable for us."

In 2004, when Kerby began serving as a Mississippi Supreme Court appointee to the three-judge Complaints Tribunal to handle cases involving attorney discipline, she was the sole female of the four Trial Warriors in Mississippi. Last year, she volunteered countless hours serving on the Overnight Ambulance rescue mission after Hurricane Katrina.

When the Kerbys and their two children, Eli, a 14-year-old who is already nearly six feet tall, and Katherine Maer, 8, her "great assistant scout leader" are not restoring their 1833 antebellum home, they're involved in numerous community and civic organizations, including St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Columbus, the local Rotary Club and Girl Scout Troop.

"Spare time is a strange concept for me," admitted Kerby, an eighth-generation Mississippian. "However, operating on the hope and expectation of such concept, I would spend more time with my family and in restoring my 180-year-old home and historic gardens. My goal is to have served generations well in the many communities of life."