BIO

Karen C. Burgess is a trial lawyer, 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.

Karen is a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers. Karen recently delivered the Dean’s Address for the Academy—Truth or Consequence: Protecting Justice and the Rule of Law Against a Crisis of Deception—and is currently the Academy’s President-Elect. Karen is a member of the College’s State Committee. After two terms as the elected treasurer of ABOTA’s National Board of Directors, Karen is currently an elected Trustee of the national ABOTA Foundation, and an appointee to ABOTA National’s Executive Committee. In 2021, she served as President of Austin’s ABOTA Chapter. Karen was a faculty member for the ABOTA 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).

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.

Chambers ranks Karen as a Band One Commercial Trial Lawyer, and Thomson Reuters has named Karen a “Top 10 Super Lawyer in Texas.” Over the years, Karen has been named a “Top 100 Super Lawyer” as well as a “Top 50 Women Super Lawyer in Texas” and a “Top 50 Central & West Texas Super Lawyer.” 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 and her firm 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. 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.

In addition to delivering her Dean’s Address around the nation, Karen is a frequent speaker on business torts, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and Fraudulent Transfer Act as well as other litigation topics. Karen has also conducted on-stage interviews for the International Academy of Trial Lawyer’s annual meeting and TEX-ABOTA’s Santa Fe conference. COMBAR invited her to participate in its annual debate, which was on the efficacy of the trial process for commercial matters.

Karen is active in the community. She is a past President of the People’s Community Clinic Foundation Board, and she remains a board member. Karen has 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 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 the proud parents of two college students.