Team Katten—a group of 25 attorneys, staff, family and friends from the firm's Los Angeles Century City, Downtown and Orange County offices—will have their chance to pull a 124,000-pound FedEx cargo plane at Long Beach Airport to help raise funds for the Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) in their 12th annual Plane Pull event on Saturday, August 19. This year's honorary team captain will be Rachel Osterbach, athlete, insurance company employee, SOSC Global Messenger and actress in the A&E series Born This Way, a reality show featuring a cast of young adults with Down syndrome navigating the world around them. "We only recently found out Rachel is our official honorary captain, and we are just thrilled," said David Halberstadter, Katten Litigation partner, in a recent interview for SOSC. "It is just extraordinary what she has accomplished. I think it is just terrific. We are going to have fun having her as a part of our team."

The firm has been involved with SOSC in previous years and decided this year to become a Bronze Sponsor. "Katten has a long history of giving back to the communities where we work and live. When Special Olympics was suggested, everyone sparked to it," David added. "The idea that, through our financial contribution, we can help enrich the lives of 30,000 athletes in Southern California is fantastic! We are proud to be part of this movement." When it comes to actually pulling the plane, David said, "Everyone in the office has been asking 'Is the distance we need to pull the plane in inches or feet?' I'm sure some of the law enforcement groups or fire departments will have no problem with this. We are a bunch of law firm attorneys and staff with strong enthusiasm, but we sure are going to give it a try!" ("Honorary Captain Uses Baby Steps To Thrive," August 16, 2017.)