Karen Dunn is a first-chair trial lawyer and advisor to some of the nation’s largest companies in their most significant legal challenges, including government and public scrutiny and franchise-threatening antitrust and consumer litigation. She is frequently called upon by clients to navigate multifaceted crises, where she leverages formidable skills as a high-stakes litigator, former White House lawyer and communications authority to help companies, public figures and boards navigate reputation-threatening investigations, government inquiries and media scrutiny—often all at the same time. Widely recognized across the industry as a go-to lawyer nationally for securing courtroom victories in the most difficult cases, Karen has repeatedly been ranked by Benchmark Litigation as one of the “Top 10 Women in Litigation” and “Top 100 Trial Lawyers.”
Karen has successfully led many of the largest and most important trials of the past decade, including Waymo LLC v. Uber Technologies, Inc., the hotly contested trade secrets “battle royale,” which settled favorably for Uber shortly after Karen’s examination at trial of former CEO Travis Kalanick; Malden Transportation, Inc. v. Uber Technologies, Inc., where she delivered a complete defense victory in a $750 million dispute after being brought in to lead the trial team just six weeks before trial; Zehn-NY LLC v. The City of New York, representing Uber in its challenge to New York City’s so-called “cruising cap,” which was struck down as arbitrary and capricious; Epic Games Inc. v. Apple Inc., the high-stakes challenge to the App Store by the makers of Fortnite, which ended in victory for Apple following a three-week trial; Apple Inc. v. Qualcomm Incorporated, where she secured a $4 billion summary judgment win for Apple in the lead-up to trial; the Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation, a billion-dollar class action, which ended in a complete defense jury verdict; Oracle USA, Inc. v. Rimini Street, Inc., a copyright infringement and computer fraud dispute, Monster, LLC v. Beats Electronics, LLC, winning summary judgment for Beats on the eve of trial.
Karen has also led trial teams in landmark civil rights cases, including in Sines v. Kessler, a pathbreaking lawsuit against the leaders of the neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements in America responsible for the racially-motivated violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017; and in Council of the District of Columbia v. Gray, a hard-fought, two-year battle in local and federal court to secure budget autonomy for the District of Columbia.
Karen is also a go-to counsel for clients contending with high-profile government, law enforcement and sensitive internal investigations. Among others, she prepared Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos for his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. She represented key witnesses asked to appear before the congressional committee investigating the killing of Americans in Benghazi; key witnesses in the New York Attorney General’s investigation of sexual harassment allegations against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; a high-profile witness in simultaneous investigations by the Department of Justice, an agency Inspector General and a congressional committee; and a major university in responding to sexual abuse allegations concerning a former university official.
She has led debate preparations for presidents, vice presidents, and senators for consequential debates in every federal election cycle since 2008 including for President Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Vice President Kamala Harris. She also often serves as an on-air commentator on politics and the law.
Karen has served in all three branches of government, including as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia; Associate White House Counsel under President Barack Obama; and Senior Advisor and Communications Director to former Sen. Hillary Clinton. Earlier, she served as a law clerk to Judge Merrick B. Garland of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and to Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Updated July 2023
