Karen Escalante is a seasoned trial attorney with over 15 years of experience in the public and private sectors. She handles complex commercial litigation, white collar defense, and internal investigations, with an emphasis on civil matters that contain criminal implications. She draws on her extensive experience in the public and private sectors—including eight years as a federal prosecutor—to provide clients with informed, efficient, and strategic solutions to their legal challenges.

During her tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, Karen investigated and prosecuted complex financial crimes including securities fraud, insider trading, wire fraud, bank fraud, healthcare fraud, bankruptcy fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering. She has tried both bench and jury trials to verdict and has also briefed and argued multiple cases before the Ninth Circuit. As a federal prosecutor, Karen obtained the conviction at trial of the corporate controller of a publicly traded company for insider trading and secured the conviction of the former president and CEO of a substance abuse treatment provider for his participation in an $18.5 million healthcare fraud scheme. She subsequently secured convictions against multiple defendants of that same substance abuse treatment provider in a multi-week trial.

Before she became a federal prosecutor, Karen was a litigator at Morrison & Foerster in Washington, D.C., where she handled a variety of appellate, regulatory, intellectual property, and general commercial matters. She also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Fernando M. Olguin of the United States District Court for the Central District of California and the Honorable Rubén Castillo of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Karen is active in the legal community and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Litigation Section of the California Lawyers Association. While working as an AUSA, she led a team of volunteer AUSAs to teach fifth graders at a local elementary school about the criminal justice system through Project LEAD. In addition, Karen has taught trial advocacy at the University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law since 2023.

Karen is a native Spanish speaker.

EDUCATION
J.D., University of Chicago Law School
The University of Chicago Legal Forum, Staff Member

 B.A., University of California, Berkeley

EXPERIENCE
United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California, Assistant United States Attorney

United States District Court, Honorable Fernando Olguin, Judicial Law Clerk

United States District Court, Honorable Rubén Castillo, Judicial Law Clerk

Morrison & Foerster, Litigation Associate

BAR ADMISSIONS
California

District of Columbia