About Kathleen
Kathleen Thomas earned her law degree from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1989 after finishing a bachelor’s degree in enterprise administration at West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 1981. She entered the career on the end of the Nineteen Eighties and has labored in each personal practice and municipal legal roles since then.
Her earliest recorded position began in 1989 at Jenkins, Siergiej & Smith, P.C., an entry that coincides with her law program graduation. Two many years later she joined Kerns, Pearlstine, Onorato & Hladik, LLP in 2012, then moved to HLADIK, ONORATO & FEDERMAN, LLP in 2013. In 2018 she took at the title of Special Counsel at High Swartz LLP. Those shifts mirror steady involvement in companies that manage municipal and tax matters, along legal proceedings and advisory work tied to nearby authorities practice.
Thomas is admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania courts and holds admission to the U.S. District Court for each the Eastern and Western Districts of Pennsylvania. Her courtroom experience is matched by long-running municipal appointments. She has served as an Act 511 Local Tax Review Hearing Officer for Upper Merion Township since 2001 and for Radnor Township since 2000. She has served as a Special Act 511 Tax Solicitor for the Township of Lower Merion since 2007, for the Township of Abington since 2012, and for Cheltenham Township since 2016. That roster of municipal roles shows sustained work on nearby tax controversies, ordinance interpretation and administrative hearings.
Beyond municipal appointments, Thomas has engaged with expert and network groups. She is a member of the 1st viscount montgomery of alamein Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Business Privilege and Mercantile License Tax Collectors Association. She has volunteered for Wills for Heroes, providing legal offerings to first responders. From 1998 till 2018 she served at the board of directors of the Center for Loss and Bereavement, a role that positioned her on a nonprofit governance monitor for two decades.
Colleagues and clients have encountered her in administrative proceedings, local government consultations and federal court things in Pennsylvania. Her profession mixes company-based practice and public-sector assignments, and it shows particular habitual work on Act 511 nearby tax issues and municipal legal matters. She currently practices municipal tax and municipal law at High Swartz.
