SAN DIEGO, March 22, 2012—Duane Morris congratulates Karen Shichman Crawford, former partner in the firm's Trial Practice Group in its San Diego office, for her selection as a magistrate judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. She was sworn in on March 5, and her chambers are located in the Edward J. Schwartz U.S. Courthouse in San Diego. Crawford will serve an eight-year term.
"Karen was a superb trial lawyer with both extensive experience handling countless commercial and civil disputes and in-depth knowledge of the law and its many complexities," said John Soroko, Chairman of Duane Morris. "I am confident that she will serve the judiciary well as an insightful and impartial magistrate judge."
Crawford practiced in the area of complex commercial litigation, and handled matters involving contract disputes, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, products liability and medical device litigation. She coordinated large-scale litigation for clients in a broad range of matters. Crawford assisted the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight ("OFHEO") in its special examination of Fannie Mae, which resulted in the submission of a Report to Congress in May 2006 and a $400 million settlement by Fannie Mae. In addition, OFHEO pursued administrative prosecution of charges against former high-level Fannie Mae executives.
Before coming to Duane Morris, Crawford served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, and as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, she was identified as one of the top one percent of her peer group in the office and was selected to receive the Director's Award for Superior Performance. A member of the Lawyer's Club of San Diego, she served as co-chair of the organization's Scholarship Fund for Justice and a member of its Endorsement and Nominations Committee. She has also served multiple San Diego-based chapters of the American Inns of Court.
Prior to earning her J.D. from the California Western School of Law, where she served as the Head Notes and Comments Editor of the Law Review, Crawford graduated, cum laude, from Boston University.
Crawford is part of a Duane Morris judicial tradition: in October 2011, former Duane Morris special counsel Neil Bason was also sworn in as a judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. They are two of many Duane Morris lawyers to go on to the bench, on both coasts.
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