Pagel, Davis & Hill, P.C. is pleased to welcome new Associate Attorney Katya Nikitina to its Commercial Litigation Section.

Katya will primarily work with PDH Law Shareholder Philip Racusin on PDH Law’s taxicab defense docket, and provide commercial litigation services to other clients.

Prior to joining PDH Law, Katya served as a Law Clerk for Berg & Androphy law firm. Katya previously worked for 10 years as in-house legal counsel to two international media companies in Moscow, Russia.

Katya received her Master of Laws from the University of Houston Law Center; Certificate in Paralegal Graduate Studies from Rice University; and Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence from Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Katya is fluent in Russian and French, and conversational in Italian.

Outside of the office, Katya is actively involved in the legal community and currently serves as a member of the Gender Fairness Committee and Diversity and Inclusion Committee with the Houston Bar Association. She cares about protecting the welfare of people participating in human research projects, which is why she joined University of Houston’s Institutional Review Board. As a member of the IRB, Katya oversees research protocols and related materials and assesses the ethics of the research and its methods, promoting fully informed and voluntary participation.

When not doing lawyerly activities, Katya enjoys reading and traveling with her husband and kids to places with unpronounceable names. She also finds great relaxation in teaching herself to play the piano when it is not occupied by two very curious kids.