Inspiring Widow and Single Mother Embarks on Law Career to Make a Difference

On her LSAT testing day in spring 2022, Katherine Brooks (B.A. ’06, J.D. Candidate ’26) may have looked like the average aspiring law student, but her circumstances were far from average. Before taking the LSAT, she had completed one practice test during the only quiet time she could find: in the middle of the night while her 10-month-old daughter, Carter, was sleeping. As she took the exam, her sister babysat Carter because Katherine was a single mother, her husband having passed away less than a year earlier.

Katherine’s late husband, Will Brooks, liked to say that 2020 was not everybody’s easy year, but it was their year.

The couple first met in 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut Houston down in 2020, Katherine stayed with Will in his Tomball home. This arrangement led to an engagement, and soon after, they officially moved in together. After they married, they welcomed their daughter, Carter Brooks, in April 2021. Only four months later, Will died from COVID-19 Pneumonia.

Losing her husband prompted Katherine to make a life-changing decision. After 15 years of teaching journalism, debate, English and AP research in Houston public schools, she returned to the classroom as a single mother — only to quickly realize her passion for education was waning.

“I wasn’t feeling it as a career anymore,” she said. “I started thinking about things I could do that would allow me to support my daughter better.”

Guided by the lessons she once taught her students about pursuing change through education, Katherine turned to law school as a new path. She had wanted to be a lawyer as a child after reading To Kill a Mockingbird at nine and feeling inspired by how Atticus Finch used words to change minds, help people and make a difference.

“I always told my students, ‘If you don’t like something in the world, go get the education to fix it,’” she recalled.

Now, it was time for her to follow her own advice.

After overcoming many obstacles to take the LSAT and apply to law school, she received several offers of admissions and ultimately chose the University of Houston Law Center. There, she was awarded four scholarships: the Jennifer H. Chung (J.D. ’13) Scholarship, the Nancy Snyder-Nepo Scholarship, the Sam Williamson Fellowship in Immigration Law and the Law Dean's Scholarship.

As an undergraduate student at UH, Katherine received the Academic Excellence scholarship. The experience instilled in her a desire to give back to her alma mater as much as possible. After she graduated, she became a Life Member and donated to the Honors College.

"My long-term dream is to be able to help all the students whose firms don’t pay for it to pay for bar prep."

To those considering donating a scholarship to the University of Houston and supporting students like her, Katherine has a heartfelt message: “There are students out there struggling who don’t need to be. Anything you can do to help makes the profession and the school better.”

With her degree, Katherine hopes to practice immigration law, inspired by a church speaker who envisioned a legal ministry for asylum seekers and survivors of domestic abuse and human trafficking.

“I could do that and make a real difference,” she realized.

As she balances law school with motherhood and community service, Katherine proves every day that resilience, education and purpose can lead to powerful change.