Forty Under 40: Katelyn ‘Katie’ Eaves

Attorney Katie Eaves is becoming a regular on the public speaking circuit in Northwest Arkansas, because she has a passion for teaching about nonprofits and their governance, taxation and structure.

Eaves will speak to any audience size or makeup, whether it is a nonprofit, leadership group or chamber of commerce. She said she became comfortable in front of an audience during her classical training as an opera singer, but she also credits law school and the cooperative argumentative-style dialogue she encountered at the University of Arkansas.

Eaves graduated from Fayetteville High School and won a state golf championship. She earned a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance (she minored in business) and a law degree from the UA, then a master’s degree in law in taxation from the University of Florida. She returned to Arkansas to begin practicing law and first worked for Keith, Miller, Butler, Schneider & Pawlik PLLC. She has been with the Friday firm since 2017.

She focuses on transactional and tax law and estate planning, but hopes to expand further into the legal aspects of nonprofits.

Meanwhile, she is vice chairman of the board for the Circle of Life Foundation, which she described as “a wonderful group of people doing meaningful work.” She’s an alumnae adviser for Delta Delta Delta at the UA, on the Bentonville Library Foundation Board, president of the Benton County Bar Association and an earnest seeker of work-life balance with a 10-month-old daughter at home.

Women are still a minority in the field of law, and even fewer of them have children, so Eaves said she loves to develop connections with strong women with families who maintain community involvement.