Karen L. Dunn⏐Partner

Karen Dunn, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, is widely recognized as one of the country’s premier trial lawyers. Among other recognitions, Karen has been named a “Litigator of the Year” by The American Lawyer for her role in “high-stakes, high-profile, and hard-fought” cases. Karen has also been recognized as a “Star Individual” for Trials by Chambers and Partners, which reports that Karen’s clients call her “a go-to lawyer for your toughest, most-challenging problems.” 

Karen is also Chambers and Partners-ranked in Band 1 for Crisis and Risk Management, advising companies, public figures, and boards of directors as they navigate reputation-threatening investigations, government inquiries, and media scrutiny — often all at the same time. Profiled in the New York Times as a lawyer unafraid of telling hard truths, Karen has also led debate preparations for candidates for President, Vice President, and Senate — experience that makes her uniquely qualified to prepare C-suite executives in make-or-break moments.  

Karen has successfully led some 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; 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, where the team delivered a complete defense jury verdict; Monster, LLC v. Beats Electronics, LLC, winning summary judgment for Beats on the eve of trial; Oracle USA, Inc. v. Rimini Street, Inc., where she won trial victories in both 2015 and 2022 including a permanent injunction against Rimini over its copying of Oracle software; and ARM Ltd. v. Qualcomm Inc., where she secured a jury verdict for Qualcomm in a case worth tens of billions of dollars with far-reaching consequences for innovation and competition.

Karen has also led trial teams in landmark civil rights cases. In Sines v. Kessler, she won a groundbreaking verdict against the leaders of the neo-Nazi movements in America responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, a victory so significant that it was featured in the 2023 HBO documentary, “No Accident.” Karen also led 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 has also been described as “a go-to advisor for the boards and executives of major companies, high-profile individuals, and top government officials, as they navigate multifaceted crises.” Among others, she prepared Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and UnitedHealth Group’s CEO Andrew Witty for back-to-back Senate and House hearings on the same day, following the largest-ever healthcare data breach. She also represented key witnesses asked to appear before the congressional committee investigating the killing of Americans in Benghazi; witnesses in an investigation into a state politician; a high-profile witness in simultaneous investigations by the Department of Justice, an agency inspector general and a congressional committee; and she has guided major universities, philanthropies, and companies in responding to enterprise-threatening allegations. 

In addition to the Chambers and Partners recognitions above, Karen is ranked Tier 1 in Leading Trial Lawyers by The Legal 500 and one of Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 10 Women in Litigation” and “Top 100 Trial Lawyers.”  Karen has also been named a “Litigator of the Week” five times by The American Lawyer as well as “Litigator of the Year”; one of the National Law Journal’s “Outstanding Women Lawyers”; one of the Daily Journal’s “Leading Commercial Litigators”; one of Elle Magazine’s “Most Compelling Women in Washington”; and has been listed multiple times as a Law360 “Trials MVP.” In November 2024, Karen was a finalist for The American Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year honor for her efforts to combat hate and in April 2025, Karen received Legal Aid DC’s highest honor, the Servant of Justice Award.

Prior to entering private practice, Karen served in all three branches of government, including as an Assistant United States Attorney, Associate White House Counsel, Senate Communications Director, House Press Secretary, and law clerk to Judge Merrick B. Garland and Justice Stephen G. Breyer. Karen also sits on the boards of D.C. Appleseed and the National Women’s Law Center.