Lawyers / Professionals

Ms. Karn devotes her professional practice to employment law and securities litigation. Often, her cases involve both areas of the law.

On the employment side, she counsels and represents management clients and college and university clients in the areas of employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, ERISA, covenants not to compete and trade secret violations. Her practice includes litigation in the areas of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, the Family Medical Leave Act, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and defamation. She represents employers before state and federal courts, federal and state administrative agencies, arbitrators and mediators.

Outside the courtroom, she assists employers - both private sector and in higher education - with drafting employment contracts, employee handbooks, non-compete agreements, confidentiality agreements, severance agreements and various employment policies and procedures. In her work with colleges and universities, Ms. Karn has provided advice on, and/or handled litigation involving, tenure issues, academic freedom, defamation, breach of contract, student complaints, reductions in force for both staff and faculty, and other types of matters. She also lectures on a variety of employment law topics.

On the securities side, Ms. Karn represents broker/dealers and associated individuals in connection with customer-driven securities fraud claims, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, negligence, trade secret violations, U-5 defamation and others. In arbitration and mediation, she has handled matters involving annuities, mutual funds and various option strategies. She has represented broker/dealers and related parties before the Virginia Department of Securities and NASD/FINRA involving formal and informal investigations for alleged rule violations.

Prior to re-joining McGuireWoods in 2000, she was an associate with Harman, Claytor, Corrigan & Wellman in Richmond, Va. There, she gained valuable experience in all facets of civil litigation, including first-chair trial experience, in both state and federal courts, in such areas as insurance defense, commercial litigation and product liability litigation.