Kate Jensen

Kate Jensen is a partner of the Government Affairs & Public Policy practice at Steptoe.

Kate’s practice is heavily focused on legislative and regulatory counseling for the insurance sector. She has extensive experience representing insurance industry clients before state policymakers, including at the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Kate has helped multiple clients develop and secure adoption of model state legislation, and she engages directly with state legislators and regulators on clients’ behalf.  She assists clients in navigating regulator audits and bringing administrative challenges to agency actions. Kate also sits on the Board of the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) with state regulators and other industry representatives.

Kate’s insurance experience extends to the federal level, representing clients on Capitol Hill and before the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. She has strong subject matter knowledge on a wide range of issues impacting insurance entities, including insurance sales and marketing practices, licensing, privacy and data security, fiduciary responsibilities, the Affordable Care Act regime, and the surplus lines market.   

Prior to returning to Steptoe in 2024, Kate served as Corporate Counsel at Amazon Web Services where she led multiple global policy initiatives for AWS's infrastructure regulatory compliance team. She identified opportunities for proactive engagement with policymakers, developed global advocacy strategies and industry partnerships, and managed cross-discipline teams to execute lobbying campaigns on environmental, products, and trade topics in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific region. Her legal and advocacy work with AWS covered global waste laws, chemicals and materials restrictions, workplace health and safety, and trade issues impacting cloud service providers. She also served as her team’s lead on AWS's AI/Machine Learning infrastructure expansion program. At Steptoe, Kate continues to help AWS with global advocacy projects related to reverse logistics and circular economy initiatives. 

In her past experience with Steptoe’s Government Affairs and Public Policy practice, Kate focused on regulatory compliance and advocacy in the financial services sector, including insurance and payments policy, as well as commercial real estate. She also represented a major US manufacturer of lighting and smart building solutions on energy efficiency, Internet of Things, and tax policy issues.

Kate clerked for the Honorable Richard W. Story on the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.  Before law school, she worked as a federal lobbyist for a bipartisan DC-based firm, as Advance Team & Events Coordinator for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and as Director of Finance Operations for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.