Karen A. Rooney is Senior Counsel to Hunt Ortmann Nieves Darling Mah Klein & Lozano, Inc. Her practice is almost exclusively devoted to the representation of California employers in transactional and litigation matters. Ms. Rooney has practiced law in the firm setting, including large firms and her own firm, for most of her career. Early in her career, Ms. Rooney worked for both Ninth Circuit and U.S. District Court judges and for the Division of Enforcement of the Commodity Futures Training Commission. She has also taken trial practice and mediation courses.
Ms. Rooney provides advice to employers about wage and hour matters; claims of discrimination, harassment and retaliation; contract disputes; employer policies, procedures and agreements; arbitration agreements; confidentiality agreements; termination of employment; reductions in force; trade secret misappropriation; Equal Pay issues; employee discipline; disability and religious accommodation issues; and compliance with the many California laws that affect employers.
Ms. Rooney has also litigated cases involving the above issues for both large and small employers. Her litigation experience includes trials in State and Federal courts; and numerous employee-employer contractually mandated arbitrations. Ms. Rooney has extensive experience in mediation as well.
Ms. Rooney has been retained several times by employers to conduct workplace investigations.
Ms. Rooney’s many years of experience enable her to quickly size up cases, assess risk and recommend courses of action that take the financial burden of litigation and an employer’s interest in not encouraging additional litigation into account. Ms. Rooney’s other interests include training newer attorneys and “translating” the various stages of litigation to non-lawyers to facilitate their full and informed participation in the process.
Ms. Rooney has contributed as a volunteer for the Los Angeles County Law Library, as a mediator for various State court programs and as an arbitrator for the Los Angeles County Bar Association Fee Arbitration Program. She has also volunteered her services to several local bar associations.
