Lamb McErlane attorneys Katherine ‘Katie” Fow and Cara C. Sawyer were presenters at the National Business Institute (NBI) seminar, Top Challenges in Pennsylvania Family Law. 

The seminar focused on some of the biggest challenges in family law cases, including tough discovery and evidence issues, complex assets, military divorce matters, and more.

In their first session Katie and Cara discussed Overcoming Discovery and Evidence Obstacles in Family Law and Military Divorce. This included, Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act Updates; Current Case Law; Jurisdictional Considerations; Custody and Visitation Issues; Child and Spousal Support; Military Pension, Retirement and Benefits; Survivor Benefit Plan for Retired Military Personnel; Military Reservists’ Retirement Benefits; Survivorship and Military Disability Benefits; Federal Health Benefit Concerns; as well as Contempt.

 In the second session Katie and Cara presented on Overcoming Discovery and Evidence Obstacles in Family Law; including Smart Phone, Text and Social Media Evidence – Uncovering Critical Information; Balancing the Need for Information and the Cost; Spoliation Pitfalls;

Subpoenas for Cell Phone Records and Social Media – Confronting Common Defenses;

and Authentication and Admission Evidence Challenges.

At Lamb McErlane, Katherine ‘Katie” Fow is a family law attorney. She assists clients with divorce matters, custody, child support, spousal support, and alimony.

Katie’s background includes drafting and filing pleadings, discovery motions, response to discovery requests, dispositive motions, and pre-trial motions and documents. Katie has experience with motion hearings and other court-ordered events, including but not limited to case management conferences, status conferences, settlement conferences, pre-trial conferences, discovery court hearings, and oral argument on pleadings.

During law school, Katie was a legal intern at the Office of the Camden County Prosecutor, Camden, NJ in the Grand Jury and Domestic Violence Unit. Additionally, she was a Law Clerk at a Philadelphia law firm conducting research and drafting documents regarding family law issues. Katie earned her undergraduate degree from Loyola University and a JD from Widener University Delaware Law School. She is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania.

Cara Coyne Sawyer practice focuses on family law at Lamb McErlane. She advocates for her clients and supports them through family law matters including divorce cases, issues related to custody, child support, spousal support, and alimony.

Prior to joining Lamb McErlane, Cara practiced at a large Philadelphia law firm, where her practice focused on providing counsel to educational institutions regarding policy development and leading investigations into sexual and gender-based harassment and violence, and other forms of misconduct. Cara spent over a decade with the State of Delaware, where she developed policy and managed agencies in the areas of child welfare, and substance abuse and mental health. She began her career as a child abuse and sexual assault prosecutor, working for five years at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

Cara earned her JD from the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, an MA from the University College Cork, Ireland and an undergraduate degree from University of Scranton. She is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania.