Karen C. Burgess is a trial lawyer who handles business disputes and is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Specialization. Her practice includes trade secrets, oil and gas, contract, real estate, securities, partnership and fiduciary litigation—really any commercial litigation.

Thomson Reuters has named Karen a “Top 10 Super Lawyer in Texas” in its last three editions, and Chambers ranks Karen as a Band One Commercial Trial Lawyer. Karen is the President of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. Karen is a fellow and serves on the Texas State Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is also a fellow of the International Society of Barristers. After two terms as the elected treasurer of The American Board of Trial Advocates’ National Board of Directors, Karen currently serves as a presidential appointee to the National Board. She was a faculty member for the ABOTA’s National Trial College at Yale Law School in 2018 and 2022. Karen is also a member of the American Law Institute and an Honorary Overseas Member of the Commercial Bar Association of the UK and Wales (COMBAR) and Karen has twice debated at COMBAR’s Combined North American Meeting—against the trial process no longer being fit for purpose in resolving commercial disputes in Boston and for the merits of damages-based fees in Stockholm.

Karen enjoyed the honor of co-chairing the 2019 State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting and introducing keynote speeches by iconic newsman Dan Rather and acclaimed author Wil Haygood.

In 2011, Karen was selected a “Winning Woman” by Texas Lawyer, a designation reserved for only twenty attorneys in the state of Texas. The Travis County Women Lawyers Association chose Karen as Litigator of the Year for 2012. Lawdragon has repeatedly named Karen one of The 500 Leading Lawyers in America, and The Best Lawyers in America® (BL Rankings) lists Karen as a Best Lawyer for Commercial Litigation.

Stephanie and Bill Whitehurst named a University of Texas School of Law Public Interest Fellowship in her honor, and the University of Texas School of Law named her the 2018 Alumni Mentor of the Year.

Locally, Karen was the 2018-2019 President of the Lloyd Lochridge American Inn of Court and she has served as a co-chair of the Austin nominating committee for the Texas Bar Foundation.

Karen is a frequent speaker on disinformation and delivered the Dean’s Address for the Academy—Truth or Consequence: Protecting Justice and the Rule of Law Against a Crisis of Deception. Karen also presents on Business Torts, the Trade Secrets Act and the Fraudulent Transfer Act as well as other litigation topics, and she has served as course director for the University of Texas Page Keeton Civil Litigation Seminar and TexasBarCLE’s Business Disputes Course. She has co-chaired and spoken at the Austin Bar Association’s Bench Bar conference and has presented at the Hidalgo County Bar Association’s David H. Hockema Civil Trial Law Conference, the annual Connecticut Legal Conference, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ annual conference, and the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law Conference in Washington, D.C., among others. Karen has participated in ABOTA’s Masters in Trial series and has conducted on-stage interviews for the International Academy of Trial Lawyer’s annual meeting and TEX-ABOTA’s Santa Fe conference.

Karen is active in the community. She is a past President of the People’s Community Clinic Foundation Board. Karen served on the Foundation Board for the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, has done committee work for the Paramount Theater and is an elder of the Westlake Presbyterian Church.

Before practicing law in Austin, Karen earned her B.A. in Economics, Spanish, and Policy Studies from Rice University—where she had the opportunity to study at the Universidad Catolica in Valparaiso, Chile.

Karen is married to a commercial transactions attorney, Brian Burgess. Karen and Brian are proud parents to two college students.

Stacy Rogers Sharp is a litigation attorney focusing on legal research, writing and civil procedure. She practices at the trial and appellate levels in civil matters involving a wide range of disputes including trade secrets, business torts, partnerships and corporations, securities, banking, real property, contracts, insurance, and oil and gas. In addition to her law practice, Stacy has taught legal research and writing at the University of Texas School of Law as a full-time member of the faculty and, most recently, as an adjunct professor.

Stacy began her career clerking for the Honorable Lee Yeakel, U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Texas, where she handled a heavy civil docket, then practiced complex commercial trial and appellate litigation at Baker Botts LLP. She served as the 2013-2014 President of the Federal Bar Association’s Austin Chapter and was recently elected as an American Bar Foundation Fellow. She also sits on the State Bar of Texas’s Child Abuse & Neglect Committee. Her publications and papers include:

“Texas Business Torts: Recent Developments in Claims and Remedies,” Page Keeton Civil Litigation Conference (Nov. 2017) (with Karen C. Burgess).

“Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act,” State Bar of Texas Annual Summer School Course (July 2018) (with Karen C. Burgess)

“Crafting Responses to Counterarguments: Learning from the Swing-Vote Cases,” 10 Legal Comm. & Rhetoric (Fall 2013).

“The Limited Exceptions to Limitations in Oil and Gas Cases,” 57 The Advocate 63 (Winter 2011).

“Retroactive Laws: When Never Means Sometimes,” Texas Association of Defense Counsel Conference (March 2009) (with Thomas R. Phillips).

Stacy is admitted to practice in Texas, the District Court for the Western District of Texas, and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. A 2006 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Stacy was named a Chancellor, served on the Texas Law Review, and received a Texas Law Fellowship. She also served as a judicial intern for the Honorable Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court.

A former teacher, Stacy taught math and science in Honduras, the South Bronx, and Austin before practicing law. She now serves on the Alamo Heights School District’s Education Advisory Council. She is fluent in Spanish. Stacy is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where she received a B.S. in Mathematics, Spanish, and Educational Studies in 2000.

Outside of practice, Stacy, her husband, and their three children have served as a foster family for children who are removed from their homes for abuse or neglect and they are active members of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, San Antonio.

Katie Dolan-Galaviz is an experienced trial attorney who advocates with tireless dedication, whether in writing, in the courtroom, or at any other stage of litigation.

Katie’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation. Her representation has covered a range of commercial issues, including fraud, trade secret theft, partnership disputes, oil and gas, franchise-related controversies, and contract and UCC disputes.

Katie has extensive experience in all aspects of litigation: early case assessment, litigation risk analysis, alternative dispute resolution procedures, large-scale discovery including electronic document collection, review, and production, motion practice, pre-trial preparation, trial, settlement, and appeals.

Katie was a key member of AT&T’s DIRECTV trial team in a $4 billion trial brought by the Federal Trade Commission for alleged deceptive advertising. On August 16, 2018, after two weeks of trial, the federal District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the majority of the FTC’s case, after which the FTC voluntarily dismissed the remainder of its case with prejudice.

In 2019, Katie represented AT&T against false advertising and deceptive trade practices claims in a lawsuit filed by Sprint in the Southern District of New York. Sprint sought an injunction against AT&T’s advertising of certain 5G technologies.

Also, in 2019, Katie won a temporary injunction in favor of the leading provider of property management software solutions against a former employee and his new company. After obtaining the favorable temporary injunction and a spoliation ruling, the parties settled the case.

Before joining Burgess Law, Katie was an associate in the commercial litigation section of a large international law firm for six years and a senior associate at a litigation boutique in Dallas, Texas.

Eric Boucheron works closely with clients, and leverages technology to efficiently and effectively manage complex business litigation. He brings those skills into the courtroom during hearings and trials, often becoming the court’s trusted source for information.

Before his career as a paralegal, Eric graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design from the State University of New York at Oswego. Art is still a central part of Eric’s life. So is his bicycle. Eric rides every day, clocking well over 7,000 miles each year.