With 40 years of experience in appellate practice and litigation support in state and federal courts, Karen heads the Firm’s appellate and litigation support practice.

After graduating first in her law school class, Karen clerked for United States District Judge William M. Hoeveler. Before joining Clarke Silverglate as a Partner in 2004, she practiced for 15 years at an AmLaw 200 firm and then at a litigation boutique that she co-founded and of which she was President. She has been Board Certified in Appellate Practice since the early years during which such certification became available to Florida lawyers, and she is consistently ranked by a variety of legal publications and groups as one of the top attorneys in Florida. Among other selections, Karen is listed in Best Lawyers in America and has been ranked in the Top 25 Female Lawyers in Miami and the Top 50 Female Lawyers in Florida. She is a charter member, as a master, of the Rosemary Barkett Appellate American Inn of Court. She has handled hundreds of cases in a wide range of substantive areas, including antitrust, banking, civil rights, class actions, commercial torts, contract and construction disputes, covenants not to compete, defamation, employment law and discrimination, ERISA, fraudulent transfers, insurance, lender liability, medical malpractice, minority set-asides, mortgage foreclosure, product liability, professional liability, probate and guardianship, and securities fraud.

Her leadership positions include chairing the Federal Court Committee of the Dade County Bar Association and its local rules subcommittee, which drafted an extensive overhaul of the rules; serving for a decade on the Appellate Court Rules Committee of the Florida Bar; and vice-chairing the Appellate Advocacy Committee of the ABA’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section. She has served the bar and legal community in numerous capacities – as chief editor/publisher of the Southern District Digest, summarizing and publicizing significant local district court decisions before the advent of electronic access to such decisions, and as a member of the Florida Bar Grievance Committee and the Admissions Committee of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Karen has been active for decades in her church community, where she has served as Treasurer and co-Treasurer, and on the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, and as chair and member of numerous other committees. Karen’s daughter is an appellate lawyer in the public defender’s office, and her son is in culinary arts. In her free time, Karen is busy with her teenage niece, who lives with her, and her three young grandchildren. Karen also enjoys reading and playing the piano.