Karyn Marie Washington

I’ve been around the law (or, more accurately, the law has been around me) nearly all my life. As a teenager, I had no doubt that my career would be in the legal field. While I was growing up in Bay Village, Ohio, my mother practiced as a paralegal before she pursued her law degree. I often went to her office and watched her, and the attorneys who she worked with, practice their profession with dignity and integrity. I wanted to be just like them.

Throughout my college and law school years and before taking the bar exam, I was an administrative assistant, legal assistant, personal assistant, legal secretary, paralegal, project coordinator, and collateral manager (sometimes more than one at a time!). As a result, even before becoming an attorney I gained experience in a wide variety of practice areas, including personal injury, bankruptcy, landlord-tenant relations, bar admissions, intellectual property, and family law. After getting my license in December 2020, I ran a solo practice for over two years, and was thrilled to join Kirner & Boldt Co., L.P.A. in November 2023.

I am a proud member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s Mental Health and Wellness Committee. There is no higher calling to me than helping de-stigmatize substance abuse and mental illness in the legal profession. In furtherance of that goal, I give presentations to attorneys and law students on the importance of identifying and treating mental illness and addiction before it becomes a professional problem. I am also a member of the bar admissions committee, interviewing applicants for their character & fitness to take the exam and become members of the profession.

I am the oldest of three (my brother and sister are twins), and an aunt to a precious niece and nephew. My mother is now a practicing attorney, and my father is a retired Vietnam War veteran. In my spare time, I write short stories and am working on the sequel to a self-published novel. I’m an avid reader (John Walsh’s “Tears of Rage” changed my life), and I love going to the theatre, listening to podcasts, and traveling to New York City as often as I can. And, of course, I am a lifelong, suffering Cleveland Browns fan who starts every football season saying, “Maybe next year.”