Cate E. Edwards

EDUCATION | EXPERIENCE | AWARDS | BAR ADMISSIONS | PERSONAL

Cate has represented hundreds of clients who have been hurt by the negligence of corporations, civil rights violations, sexual harassment and assault, and wrongful termination. She brings a client-centered approach to every case, blending the client’s personal goals and circumstances with complex legal analysis and passionate advocacy. In her fifteen years practicing law, Cate has taken on some of the largest corporations in the United States and the world, in state and federal courts, on behalf of the regular people whom they have harmed.

 

Skilled.

Cate’s personal injury practice focuses on serious injuries and wrongful death caused by corporate negligence, truck and vehicle accidents, industrial accidents and unsafe property conditions. Cate’s practice is also devoted to representing individuals who have faced sexual harassment or assault, whistleblowers who have experienced retaliation or termination and employees who have suffered other serious forms of discrimination in the workplace. Cate’s civil rights practice spans important community issues, including police shootings and abuse, death and injury to prison inmates due to inadequate health care or abuse, and long-term imprisonment after wrongful conviction.

Credentialed.

Cate graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 2004, with a degree in politics and certificate in political economy.

In 2009, she graduated from Harvard Law School. In law school, Cate practiced for two years as a student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau on behalf of indigent clients throughout the Boston area. She was also policy editor of the Harvard Law & Policy Review.

Accomplished.

Cate began her legal career as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema for the Eastern District of Virginia. Following her clerkship, she joined Sanford Heisler, a boutique civil rights law firm in Washington, D.C., where she worked on class action matters and represented clients who suffered discrimination in the workplace. 

Prior to founding Edwards Beightol, Cate served as a partner at Edwards Kirby, where she worked on serious cases involving injury and wrongful death, sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination, and victims of civil rights violations.

Cate also spent summers in law school working with National Public Radio’s Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg, and in the Washington, D.C. offices of Latham & Watkins and Jenner & Block.

Acclaimed.

  • Best Lawyers (2024)

    • Employment Law – Individual

    • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

  • North Carolina Super Lawyers (2023, 2024)

  • Business North Carolina Legal Elite (2022, 2023, 2024)

    • Employment Law

  • North Carolina Lawyer's Weekly Legal Newsmaker (2024)

  • North Carolina Lawyer's Weekly Personal Injury Power List (2023)

  • Best Lawyers’ “Ones to Watch” (2021)

    • Labor and Employment Law – Employee

    • Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

    • Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiff

  • Super Lawyers, Rising Star (2020, 2021, 2022)

    • Personal Injury

    • Civil Rights

    • Employment & Labor Law

    • Class Action/Mass Torts

  • LawDragon Top 500 Civil Rights & Plaintiff’s Employment Lawyers (2021, 2023, 2024)

  • Triangle Business Journal, Women in Business Award Winner (2019)

  • Million Dollar Advocates member

  • National Trial Lawyers, Top 40 Under 40

  • Selected to the Lawyers of Distinction List

  • National Law Journal, DC Rising Star (2013)

Bar & Court Admissions.

  • California

  • District of Columbia

  • North Carolina

  • Virginia

  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina

  • U.S. District Court for the Southern and Northern Districts of California

  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia

  • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Rooted.

Cate was born in Raleigh, where she grew up and attended public schools. In 2011, Cate founded the Elizabeth Edwards Fellows Program at Broughton High School, which provides mentoring and college opportunity for high school students who have great potential but few resources. She serves as a Cabinet Member of the WakeMed Courage to Confront Crisis Campaign in Raleigh and as Class Agent to the Princeton University Alumni Annual Giving Committee. Cate is married to Trevor Upham, and they have three children. Outside of work, Cate loves enjoying as much time as she can get with her family.