 Karen A. Pickett
Karen A. Pickett, a partner in the firm, concentrates her practice in the fields of white collar criminal defense, complex business and employment litigation, and appeals.
Karen has represented major corporations and their employees concerning government investigations and prosecutions. Karen has represented many executives and employees of pharmaceutical companies investigated by the federal government concerning health care fraud allegations. She also has represented other corporations, professionals and individuals in court and before state and federal administrative agencies concerning alleged violations of Social Security, Medicare and professional licensing regulations.
Karen also specializes in representing executives in connection with investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Karen has represented clients at the SEC concerning allegations of backdating of stock options, insider training, improper revenue recognition and other claims of fraud.
Karen also has successfully litigated employment matters concerning alleged breaches of stock option agreements, employment agreements, and non-solicitation and non-competition agreements. She also has much experience litigating complex business claims, and successfully resolving these claims for her clients. For example, she obtained summary judgment for a health insurer client in a complex dispute with one of its providers.
Karen is an experienced appellate advocate. She has been appointed by the First Circuit for the last several years to represent individuals under the Criminal Justice Act. She has argued many cases before the First Circuit and has filed petitions for writs of certiorari before the Supreme Court.
Karen graduated, cum laude, with an economics degree from the College of the Holy Cross. She attended Northeastern University School of Law where she was a head teaching assistant for Legal Practice and criminal law classes. While at Northeastern, Ms. Pickett also was a judicial extern for the Honorable Eugene A. Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Karen started her career as a New Hampshire Public Defender, and she won several trials. She then clerked for two years for the Honorable Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. After her clerkship, Ms. Pickett joined the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow, P.C. as a litigation associate where she practiced as a member of the Employment, Criminal and Professional Malpractice groups.
Karen is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She is a member of the Boston, Women's and New Hampshire Bar Associations. She is a volunteer attorney for the PAIR project, representing political asylum applicants. She also serves on the Boston Bar Association’s Criminal Law Steering Committee.
Karen authored an article in the New England Law Review, "The Road to and From Powell," and co-authored an article in the Boston Bar Journal, "Parallel Criminal and Civil Prosecutions in Mass. Federal Court." In May 2010, she was a moderator and presenter for a Boston Bar Association CLE program entitled "Representing College and University Students: Multiple Perspectives and Competing Considerations."
For several consecutive years, Ms. Pickett has been named by Boston Magazine as a Massachusetts Super Lawyer Rising Star in the category of Criminal Defense: White Collar. |
