Kathryn Oberly was a judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush in 2009. She left the court in November of 2013.

Oberly became vice chair and General Counsel of Ernst & Young LLP on October 1, 1994. Prior to becoming General Counsel, she served in a variety of different posts in both the public and private sectors. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School, she began her career as a law clerk to the Honorable Donald P. Lay of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She spent the next twelve years at the United States Department of Justice in Washington, handling appellate and special trial litigation, first in the Land and Natural Resources Division and later in the office of the Solicitor General. In the latter post, she argued more than a dozen cases in the Supreme Court.

Upon leaving the Justice Department, she continued to specialize in appellate litigation in private practice as a partner with the Washington office of Mayer, Brown & Platt. From there, she joined Ernst & Young to head up its appellate litigation and special projects group in Washington.