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Kristine W. Holt, Esq.

Kristine W. Holt, Esq., attended undergraduate school at Clarion University of Pennsylvania and graduated magna cum laude in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. She was a social worker in her rural Northwest Pa. community for nearly a decade, until moving to Philadelphia in 1995 to attend Temple University School of Law.

As an advocate of the transgender community, she organized the 1996 Transgender Employment Day Rally at Riverfront Park, and successfully petitioned then-Mayor (and later Governor) Ed Rendell for a proclamation declaring Labor Day as "Transgender Employment Day" in Philadelphia. While studying at Temple Law, she served as Managing Editor of the Temple Law Review, and penned a Comment outlining strategies for expanding the protections provided under Title VII to cover transgender individuals, which was published 1997. She also wrote an independent thesis on transgender people and military service. Also during her second year, she worked for several solo practitioners as a contract brief writer. She graduated cum laude from Temple Law in 1998, and was awarded the Smith & Leibel Family Law Award for her treatise on Transgender Marriage entitled "The Heart Has Reasons That Reason Does Not Know: The Conundrum of Same-Sex Transgender Marriage."

Following graduation, Ms. Holt served as law clerk for the Honorable Peter Paul Olszewski, Senior Judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Finishing her clerkship, she returned to Philadelphia to open her own practice. She soon followed suit with an office in New Jersey. Her first case was her own discrimination action against a former employer, brought in the W.D. Pa. Federal Court under Title VII. She prevailed over a Rule 12(b)(6) motion and settled for an undisclosed sum. She has handled numerous other matters for the LGBT community, including the first Federal Title VII transgender discrimination case brought against the City of Philadelphia in 2009, and to which the Department of Justice filed an Amicus Brief in support in 2014. She has handled other issues for transgender clients addressing family and health care services issues. She has been called the "Go-To Girl" for transgender name changes and documentation matters.

In 2010, she teamed with Philadelphia Gay News reporter Tim Cweik in his efforts to obtain documents from the Philadelphia District Attorney's office under the Freedom of Information Act and the Pennsylvania Right To Know Act, relevant to his ongoing and award-winning independent investigation of the 2002 murder of transwoman Nizah Morris, who was found injured and dying shortly after accepting a "courtesy ride" from a Philadelphia Police Officer.

Ms. Holt has been a past panel discussion presenter at the annual Trans-Health Conference held in Philadelphia, and has presented legal information programs to several area transgender support groups in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She is a presenter at the First Event Conference 2018 in the Boston area, and at the Keystone Conference in Harrisburg, addressing legal issues related to "coming out" at work. Closer to home, Ms. Holt is a board member of the Woodbury Pride Committee, whose activities engage the local the business community focusing on "Prosperity through Diversity."

Finally, she also serves as a regular panelist with the Philadelphia Arbitration Program; the bulk of her practice, however, is focused on consumer bankruptcy relief, name changes and occasional civil rights litigation (including exonoree compensation cases).

Admissions

  • Eastern District of Pennsylvania
  • Middle District of Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey
  • Pennsylvania
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
  • U.S. District of New Jersey

Publications

  • To My Trans Sisters (contributing author). Jessica Kingsley Publishers (2018)
  • Reevaluating Holloway: Title VII, Equal Protection, and the Evolution of a Transgender Jurisprudence. 70 Temp. L. Rev. 283 (1997)
  • The Disability Initiative. TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism, number 9, pp. 16-19 (1995)
  • The Grande Alliance. TV/TS Tapestry Journal, issue 68, pp. 40-41 (Summer 1994)